Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice issued a veiled warning to Syria on Tuesday, saying a Lebanon tribunal must be safe while it handles the murder of a Lebanese leader, a prominent critic of Syrian influence in Lebanon.
"One thing we'll be talking about is how to make certain these people can be secure in their work," Rice told reporters after discussing plans for the tribunal with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.
| Rice referred to the string of political killings since the 2005 assassination of then-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. |
"One thing is to make sure there is a spotlight on the problem of intimidation and the kinds of assassinations that have taken place in Lebanon," Rice said.
The United Nations Security Council is creating a tribunal to consider the Hariri case, after Lebanon's parliament, deadlocked between opponents and allies of longtime overlord Syria, failed to convene the panel on its own.
The tribunal underlies the current political standoff in Lebanon, the country's most serious crisis of governance since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.
Saniora's Western-backed government and the opposition led by the Syrian-backed Hezbollah movement are struggling for power, and rival Lebanese politicians have not met since a national dialogue conference ended last year without agreement.
The anti-Syrian forces contend that Syria fears the tribunal and is using its influence in Lebanese politics to try to kill or cripple it.