BEIRUT, Lebanon, July 7 (UPI) -- The Lebanese government was corrupt from the beginning in its opposition to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, an opposition lawmaker said Thursday.
Lebanese lawmakers are conflicted in the wake of indictments handed down last week by the STL, a U.N.-backed body investigating the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The tribunal named four members of Hezbollah, which holds two Cabinet ministers in the government of Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, in the indictment.
Boutros Harb, a parliamentarian in the opposition March 14 slate, said Mikati and the ruling March 8 alliance has a "duty" to uphold the principles of the tribunal.
"The way the government was formed indicates that it is corrupt and the new majority expressed its opposing stance against the STL in advance," he was quoted in Lebanon's news outlet Ya Libnan as saying.
Hezbollah in January helped bring down the March 8 government of Saad Hariri, the slain prime minister's son, because of its support for the STL.
Mikati survived a no-confidence vote Thursday. Lebanon's Naharnet news agency quoted the prime minister as saying Beirut could continue cooperating with the tribunal.
