Hezbollah ally questions Hariri's tenure

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- A political ally of Hezbollah questioned Thursday why Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri should get another chance to lead the country.

Hariri's fragile unity government collapsed last week after Hezbollah led opposition allies in a walkout in protest of the continued support for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which is investigating the 2005 assassination of the prime minister's father, Rafik Hariri.

Hariri is facing pressure at home after Lebanese television aired audiotapes of a meeting between Hariri and the so-called false witnesses in the case.

Michel Aoun, a former military commander and leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, a Hezbollah ally, said there is no reason Hariri should return to power. Aoun wondered after a meeting with U.N. special envoy to Lebanon Michael Williams "why the international community wants to bring back to power a man who is accused in leading the false witnesses in the U.N. investigation," Hezbollah's al-Manar reports.

The STL earlier this week handed over a sealed indictment to a pretrial judge. Hezbollah is widely expected to be named by the prosecution, though the Shiite group accuses the tribunal of acting according to Israel's wishes.