Lebanon's Government Collapses With Cabinet Resignations

[Somalina]

Lebanon's government collapsed on Wednesday as members of the opposition Hezbollah party and its allies announced they were resigning from the Cabinet.

 

Eleven members of the 30-member Cabinet quit in protest over the U.N.-backed tribunal investigation into the 2005 assassination of the country's former prime minister, Rafiq Hariri.

 

The resignations took place as Hariri's son, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, discussed the crisis with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington.

 

Media have reported that the U.N. indictments will likely target Hezbollah members.

 

Hezbollah denies involvement in the killing of Rafiq Hariri and has been pushing the government to renounce the probe. Hezbollah holds 10 of the cabinet's 30 posts.

 

In a Wednesday news conference, opposition lawmaker Gebran Bassil denounced the the U.N. investigation as an "Israeli project."

 

Earlier, Hezbollah and its allies called for Saad Hariri to hold a Cabinet meeting to discuss the U.N. tribunal.

 

The Associated Press quoted an aide to Mr. Hariri as saying the prime minister was not opposed to a meeting but had commitments outside of Lebanon. Mr. Hariri has been in the United States since Friday, discussing the stalemate with global leaders and U.N. officials.

 

A senior U.S. government official says Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has spoken to officials in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and France about the formation of a global consensus backing Lebanon and the U.N. tribunal. The official said Clinton also planned to raise the issue Wednesday during talks with Gulf Arab leaders in Qatar.

 

On Tuesday, Syria and Saudi Arabia failed to broker an agreement among Beirut's rival political factions. The negotiations had been touted by Lebanese and Arab leaders as one of the best hopes to defuse the crisis.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.