Druze leader Walid Jumblat accused Syria Wednesday of ordering the killing of Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel and questioned whether pro-Syrian Speaker Nabih Berri will hold a parliament session to approve a U.N.-backed international tribunal into the assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri in which senior officials in Damascus have been implicated. Syria has strenuously denied any involvement in the 2005 assassination of five-time prime minister Hariri. "I accuse bluntly the Syrian regime... I expect more assassinations," Jumblat, a leader of the anti-Syrian majority in the Lebanese parliament, told a press conference at his Mukhtara hometown in the Chouf mountains. | Down to just 17 ministers from its original complement of 24 after the killing and earlier resignations, it would take the departure, or killing, of just one more cabinet member for it to lose the statutory quorum required by the constitution. |
"They can do anything, because his only fear, Bashar's, is not to be indicted somewhere by the tribunal," he said, referring to Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Down to just 17 ministers from its original complement of 24 after the killing and earlier resignations, it would take the departure, or killing, of just one more cabinet member for it to lose the statutory quorum required by the constitution. Jumblat said Assad could not afford to allow the court to be formed and press ahead with charges against Syrian officials "because he knows that if a single corporal, a single individual, in Syria is involved in the crimes ... the totalitarian system (in Syria) is all involved."
The Druze leader appealed to the six-pro-Syrian ministers who resigned from the cabinet some 10 days ago to return to their jobs for the sake of national unity. He also urged a swift resumption of roundtable talks between the country's rival political factions, which collapsed when Saniora called for a cabinet meeting to approve the draft text on the international tribunal.