Hariri: Nobody forces my hand, I don't give in to threats

Lebanese prime minister reacts to more Hizbullah rhetoric over UN-backed probe into his father’s 2005 murder.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
John Kerry and Saad Hariri 311 AP (photo credit: AP)
John Kerry and Saad Hariri 311 AP
(photo credit: AP)
Saad al-Hariri, Lebanon’s prime minister, has vowed not to give in to “threats” after Hizbullah ramped up rhetoric against a UN-backed probe into his father’s murder, according to a report on Al-jazeera.
“Nobody can threaten me to force my hand. I don’t act according to this logic. I don’t give in to threats,” Hariri told the Arabic-language service of Russia Today television ahead of a two-day visit to Moscow starting on Monday.
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“I’m ready for calm and constructive dialogue, but if someone comes to me and puts a knife to my throat and tells me how to work, this is unacceptable.
Lebanon is not like that,” he said, according to a transcript of the interview provided by his office.
Hassan Nasrallah, the Hizbullah chief, warned on Thursday that his powerful Shi’ite group would “cut off the hand” of anyone who tried to arrest any of its members over the 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri, who died along with 22 other people in a massive Beirut bombing on February 14, 2005.
Nasrallah’s comments were the latest in a heated campaign Hizbullah has launched to fend off an anticipated accusation by the UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon against its highranking members in connection with the assassination.
Saad al-Hariri accused Syria of his father’s murder in the immediate aftermath of the bombing, at a time when Syria dominated Lebanon politically and militarily. He later dropped the accusation.