Obama Meets Lebanon's Hariri

With tension building over the imminent UN condemnation of Hezbollah for the murder of former PM Rafiq Hariri, Hariri's son and successor met with Obama.

With tension building over the apparently imminent UN Special Tribunal condemnation of Hezbollah for the murder of former PM Rafiq Hariri, and Hariri's son and successor meeting President Obama today, my December column on the crisis may be a useful backgrounder:

Hezbollah is about to be accused of a crime, and it is doing everything it can to warn its accusers to stand down.

You might think: one more crime? What’s new there? The answer is that this crime could expose Hezbollah to devastating retaliation right here on its home ground.

Five years ago, on Feb. 14, 2005, a huge explosion destroyed the armored car of Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri. In the aftermath, the United Nations appointed a special tribunal to investigate. The tribunal will soon announce its indictment, and it is widely expected that the indictment will name senior officials of Hezbollah as the organizers of the killing.

Hezbollah professes to fear that a public indictment would invite Sunni terrorist attacks on Shiite civilians. If this fear of Sunni retaliation were sincere, you would have to wonder why Hezbollah’s own headquarters is so lightly guarded. Hezbollah holds overwhelming military supremacy in Lebanon; Sunni extremist groups have little power here.

But here’s what could happen. An indictment in the Hariri case could mobilize Sunni Arabs outside Lebanon to demand a more effective international campaign against Hezbollah. Hezbollah has achieved something close to international legitimacy. It participates in the Lebanese government. It receives foreign ambassadors. The world looks away as it imports missiles from Iran.

All these achievements would be jeopardized if Hezbollah were formally condemned by an international organization for terror against fellow-Lebanese and fellow-Muslims.

You can read the rest here.