Jumblatt: "France would be responsible for Lebanese civil strife ..."

Koucnher & Hezbollah's Nawaf Mussawi

"...Walid Jumblatt, urged Paris to "abolish" the verdict to be issued by the United Nations Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), which is investigating the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, Naharnet reported citing an article published in Al-Hayat.

It is feared that the tribunal might trigger strife within Lebanon by potential indictment of figures with the Lebanon's Hezbollah resistance movement. ...The movement has categorically rejected the allegations and called the tribunal an "Israeli project." ...

Jumblatt also warned French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner that France would be "held responsible if civil war was ignited in the country," Al-Hayat added. ...Earlier in the year, the Lebanese daily As-Safir also said that Saudi Arabia had asked France to use its influence to find a way out of the indictment issue. The French authorities, however, told Prince Muqrin, the Saudi envoy and the Kingdom's intelligence chief, that the solution lied in the United States. ..."