CAIRO: Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri visited Cairo on Monday for talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak amid tensions back home, the official MENA news agency reported.
Lebanon’s Shia group Hezbollah and Hariri’s camp are locked in a standoff over unconfirmed reports that a UN-backed tribunal is to indict members of the militant party for the 2005 murder of Hariri’s father, ex-premier Rafiq Hariri.
Tensions over the tribunal have grown steadily, raising fears of sectarian violence and the collapse of Lebanon’s national unity government in which Hezbollah has two ministers.
Mubarak and Hariri, the Sunni premier, held discussions "in light of Egypt’s concern with Lebanon’s stability," MENA reported.
Hariri also met with Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, who earlier this month stressed his country’s support for the UN tribunal after a visit to Saudi Arabia.
"The position of Egypt and Saudi Arabia is clear: attempts to ensure the failure of the tribunal’s work will not succeed," said foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki.
There are fears that an indictment of Hezbollah members may lead to a Sunni-Shia conflict similar to one that brought the country close to another civil war in May 2008.
