Hezbollah leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah has presented evidence proving that Israel masterminded the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
At a press conference in Beirut on Monday night, the Lebanese resistance movement’s secretary general presented video materials captured by Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) as well as recorded confessions by Israeli fifth columnists substantiating that the February 14, 2005 assassination of Hariri in the capital was carried out on orders from Tel Aviv.
The Lebanese network Al-Manar aired the speech and incorporated the evidence, showing intercepted footage of Hariri’s house in the lead-up to the massive car bombing which killed him and claimed the lives of 22 other people.
The network showed videos, taken by the drones, monitoring the route that Hariri used to take every day.
The Lebanese Defense Ministry reports show Israeli warplanes and reconnaissance aircraft flew over the area where Hariri was assassinated on the day he was murdered, Nasrallah said.
Al-Manar also aired film footage showing Israeli espionage agents acknowledging their roles in the assassination.
One of the Israeli operatives, Ahmad Hussein Nasrallah, “gave false information to former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri through someone who worked with Hariri in the security area,” the Al-Manar narrator stated, and added, “He said that Hezbollah wanted to assassinate Rafik Hariri.”
Afterwards Al-Manar showed the agent admitting to the ruse.
Syria was accused of being behind the plot to assassinate Hariri, which undermined the tenuous ties between Damascus and Beirut and eventually led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.
The Hezbollah leader said Ahmed Nasrallah had sought to frighten the late Lebanese premier with the allegations as part of a larger plot to drive Syria out of Lebanon.
He went on to say that the assassination was meant to spark a sectarian and religious war in Lebanon, adding that if the United Nations tribunal investigating the case fails to consider the new evidence, it will show that the investigation has been politicized.
Nasrallah had said last month that he had been informed by the slain leader’s son and successor, Saad Hariri, that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon “will accuse some undisciplined [Hezbollah] members.”
He rejected the allegation and warned that the plot was part of “a dangerous project that is targeting the resistance.”
The United Nations tribunal is expected to announce its findings by the end of the year.
HN/HGL
