Hezbollah plans to resign from Lebanese government.

BEIRUT — The Islamic militant group Hezbollah
and its allies plan to resign from the Lebanese
Cabinet and topple the government on
Wednesday over tensions stemming from the
international investigation of the 2005
assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik
Hariri, officials said.
The ministers were planning to resign in the
afternoon unless Western-backed Prime Minister
Saad Hariri — the son of the slain leader — agrees
to their demand to convene an urgent Cabinet
meeting over the tribunal crisis, Health Minister
Mohammed Jawad Khalifeh said on Hezbollah's
Al-Manar TV.
A senior official in Hariri's Future Movement,
Mustafa Alloush, said Hariri would not succumb
to "pressure and ultimatums."
"The prime minister is not opposed to a meeting
in principle, but he has commitments outside
Lebanon now," Alloush told The Associated
Press. Hariri, whose coalition has been sharing
power with the Iranian-backed militant group,
was to meet Wednesday with President Barack
Obama in Washington to discuss the crisis in
Lebanon.
A U.N.-backed tribunal investigating the elder
Hariri's killing is widely expected to name
members of Hezbollah in upcoming indictments,
which many fear could re-ignite hostilities
between Lebanon's rival Shiite and Sunni
Muslims.
Hezbollah has denounced the tribunal as an
"Israeli project" and urged Hariri to reject any
findings by the court, which has not yet
announced any indictments.
But the prime minister has refused to break
cooperation with the tribunal.
Another official allied to Hezbollah confirmed the
resignation plan, which calls for Hezbollah and its
allies to step down along with one more minister
who would tip the balance and force the
government to fall.
To bring down the government, Hezbollah needs
the backing of more than a third of the ministers.
Hezbollah and its allies have 10 ministers in the
30-member Cabinet, and an official close to
Hezbollah said an 11th minister close to President
Michel Suleiman would also submit his
resignation.
"It all depends on the prime minister's response
to our call for a Cabinet meeting to discuss the
crisis," the official told the AP, asking that his
name not be used because of the sensitivity of
the matter. "We are considering our options and
a resignation is top of the list."
The impending indictments already have
paralyzed Lebanon's government.
Minutes after the Beirut Stock Exchange
opened, the shares of the giant development
company Solidere — the largest company listed
on the stock exchange — dropped about 7
percent.
Hariri's office had no immediate comment on the
resignation plans, but referred to his earlier
statement late Tuesday that said:
"We will use all possible means to keep channels
open to all the Lebanese to reach solutions that
guarantee stability and calm and preserve national
unity."
Violence has been a major concern as tensions
rise in Lebanon, where Shiites, Sunnis and
Christians each make up about a third of the
country's four million people. In 2008, sectarian
clashes killed 81 people and nearly plunged
Lebanon into another civil war.
Alloush, a former lawmaker, expressed concern
about possible street violence encouraged by
Hezbollah and the movement's patrons in
Tehran.
"At the end of the day, it's an Iranian decision," he
said.
Hariri's assassination in a suicide bombing that
killed 22 other people both stunned and polarized
Lebanese. He was a Sunni who was a hero to his
own community and backed by many Christians
who sympathized with his efforts in the last few
months of his life to reduce Syrian influence in the
country. A string of assassinations of anti-Syrian
politicians and public figures followed, which U.N.
investigators have said may have been connected
to the Hariri killing.
The Netherlands-based tribunal has not said who
it will indict, but Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan
Nasrallah has said he has information that
members of his group will be named.
Hezbollah denied any role in the assassination and
denounced the court as a conspiracy against it.
On Tuesday, officials announced that a diplomatic
push by Syria and Saudi Arabia had failed to
reach a deal to ease political tensions in Lebanon.
There had been few details about the direction of
the Syrian-Saudi initiative, but the talks were
lauded as a potential Arab breakthrough, rather
than a solution offered by Western powers.
Hezbollah Cabinet Minister Mohammed Fneish
said Tuesday the initiative was done in by
"American intervention and the inability of the
other side to overcome American pressure."
The collapse prompted Wednesday's push for an
emergency Cabinet meeting, even though Hariri
was out of the country and planning to meet
Obama. The prime minister also has met in
recent days with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton, along with French President
Nicolas Sarkozy, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-
moon and Saudi King Abdullah during a trip to
the U.S.

Source: Http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/7377839.html