Wednesday,April 04,2007

 Druze leader and MP Walid Jumblat said creation of an international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri under Chapter 7 of the U.N. charter was an available option.

"Setting up the tribunal under Chapter 7 remains an available option and a possibility to block attempts by some local powers allied with regional regimes to abort the court," Jumblat said in comments published Tuesday by Al-Anbaa weekly, mouthpiece of his Progressive Socialist Party (PSP).

The international tribunal will "certainly" be achieved, he said, stressing that "the countdown has started."

"We were and still are eager to establish the international tribunal by means of constitutional channels, starting by the cabinet then parliament which has been locked in the face of the parliamentary majority in a rare, unprecedented situation in democratic regimes," said Jumblat.