WASHINGTON: The United States condemned "in the strongest possible terms" an attack on staffers of a UN court investigation the 2005 killing of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri in Beirut on
Wednesday.
A security source earlier told AFP a group of angry women charged at two male investigators and their female translator who were on a scheduled appointment at a Beirut clinic, shouting insults at them, and managed to wrangle a briefcase from them.
"The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms this morning’s attack in Beirut on three members of the staff of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon," US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said in a statement.
"This attack is yet another attempt to create a false choice between justice and stability and to prevent the independent Tribunal from carrying out its Security Council mandate."
He said that "efforts to discredit, hinder, or influence the tribunal’s work serve only to increase instability and tensions in the country and should not be tolerated."
The UN-backed court was formed by a 2007 UN Security Council resolution to find and try the killers of Hariri, who was assassinated in a massive car bombing on the Beirut seafront on February 14, 2005.
Tensions are mounting in Lebanon over the tribunal as unconfirmed reports indicate it is set to accuse members of Shiite militant group Hezbollah.
Hezbollah has confirmed several of its members, both male and female, have been interrogated in connection with the murder of Hariri, a Sunni.
The Syrian- and Iranian-backed party has accused the United Nations of interfering in Lebanese affairs and called instead for a local investigation.
But Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the son of the slain ex-premier, has vowed to see the UN tribunal through.
