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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Lebanese prosecutor probes reports Hezbollah has surveillance cameras near airport |
| 2008-05-06 |
| Lebanon's top prosecutor on Monday began investigating allegations that the militant Hezbollah group set up surveillance cameras near the Beirut airport to monitor the comings and goings of anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians and foreign dignitaries. The allegations have stoked political tensions in the country, giving a new twist to the war of words between Lebanese factions backing the Western-backed parliament majority and the Hezbollah-led pro-Syrian opposition. Judicial officials said Prosecutor General Saeed Mirza ordered the investigation after receiving documents from the country's defense and interior ministers about Hezbollah's alleged placement of the cameras just outside the airport in the Lebanese capital. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to talk to the media. They also said military prosecutor Sami Sader was questioning witnesses in the case. Also Monday, a senior Shiite Muslim cleric who backs the militant group warned the government to back off the case, or risk jeopardizing security at the nation's only international airport. The latest crisis erupted when anti-Syrian pro-government leader Walid Jumblatt on Saturday accused Hezbollah of placing the cameras around the airport, which is located in the predominantly Shiite southern Beirut suburbs and where the militant group has wide support. Many buildings in the area overlook the runways. The comments by Jumblatt, who went so far as to say Hezbollah was planning assassinations of senior leaders, were the latest in over three years of verbal exchanges between the majority leaders and opposition. Hezbollah quickly dismissed the allegations and fired its own accusations against Jumblatt. Political divisions have paralyzed Lebanon and infected its administration. Since the weekend, Shiite-Sunni tensions led to sporadic street violence, in which two people were injured. Jumblatt also called for the expulsion of Iran's ambassador to Beirut and the ending of weekly Iranian commercial flight to Lebanon because they might carry weapons and money to Hezbollah, Tehran's main ally in Lebanon. In his accusations, Jumblatt also said the airport's security chief, Brig. Gen. Wafiq Shoukair, who he described as a Hezbollah loyalist, should be fired. But Sheik Abdul-Amir Kabalan, top official of the influential Supreme Shiite Muslim Council, the main religious body for Lebanon's 1.2 million Shiites, dismissed allegations of Shoukair's links to the Shiite group and warned against any government decision to punish the airport security chief or sever ties with Iran. "If there are any changes made, the airport will be out of control," Kabalan said. Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said the whole situation was "neither a legal nor a security matter" but a political issue, and warned the group will not cooperate with prosecutors if they adopt Jumblatt's stance. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 EASTMAN KODAK's declining sales??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-05-06 23:09 |