UN closer to Beirut tribunal decision
Mark Turner and Roula Khalaf
April 5, 2007
Financial Times
Original Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/6f6badcc-e312-11db-a1c9-000b5df10621.html

The UN Security Council is moving closer to a resolution that would establish an international tribunal for Lebanon, after pro-government lawmakers in Beirut said domestic discussions on the court had reached a stalemate.
Several diplomats told the Financial Times the time was fast approaching when the council would need to consider establishing the tribunal, to try the alleged killers of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri under Chapter Seven of the UN charter.
The council had hoped Lebanon would agree on a law establishing the court through its own constitutional procedures. But the country has been in crisis, with the tribunal becoming one of the most divisive issues between the pro-western government and the Hizbollah-led opposition.
The government, backed by a parliamentary majority led by Hariri's son, accuses the opposition of blocking plans for the tribunal to protect Syria, which is suspected of involvement in the killing. Nabih Berri, the pro-opposition speaker of the Lebanese parliament, has refused to call a session of parliament to pass a tribunal law. As a result, on Tuesday 70 pro-government members of parliament wrote to the UN asking it to establish the international tribunal.
Ban Ki-moon, UN sec-retary-general, yesterday officially stuck by his position that the Lebanese parties should work things out among themselves, according to a UN spokesman.
But there is a growing sense that the process is entering a new phase and that the council, which meets today on the Lebanon issue, will need to take some tough decisions.
According to one western diplomat, the possibility of a Chapter Seven resolution is becoming much more imminent.
Syrian officials deny involvement in the Hariri killing and insist the tribunal is a Lebanese matter.
Sheikh Naim Qassem, Hizbollah's second-in-command, said that establishing the court under Chapter Seven would make it a tribunal against Lebanon and not to try the Hariri killers.