Lebanese lawmakers: Mikati should back STL

Prime Minister Najib Mikati Lebanon's opposition has demanded Prime Minister Najib Mikati announce his full support for a UN-backed court charging members of Hezbollah, which dominates his cabinet, in ex-premier Rafiq Hariri's murder. "We demand the prime minister announce openly and clearly his commitment [to the tribunal] before parliament on Tuesday and say that he will take all necessary steps to abide by its decisions, or get out, he and his government," lawmaker Fouad Siniora, himself a former premier and leading member of the pro-Western opposition, said late on Sunday.
Mikati's government, in which Hezbollah and its allies control the majority of seats, this week faces a vote of confidence in parliament.
The UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon last week issued an indictment in the 2005 assassination of Hariri, a powerful Saudi-backed Sunni billionaire and politician, along with arrest warrants for four senior members of Hezbollah. Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Iranian-backed Shiite movement, last Saturday said he would never hand over the four, adding that the Netherlands-based court was heading for a trial in absentia.
Nasrallah has repeatedly dismissed the tribunal as a US-Israeli conspiracy against his armed party but on Saturday struck a conciliatory tone, saying Israel's attempts to incite sectarian violence in Lebanon would fail.
The Special Tribunal, set up in 2007, has triggered a deep political crisis in Lebanon, leading to the collapse in January of the country's Western-backed unity government.
Delicate time
The indictment comes at a delicate time for Hezbollah, as its ally Syrian President Bashar Al Assad faces an unprecedented domestic uprising against his rule.
The Hariri murder sparked a wave of massive protests in Lebanon in 2005 which, combined with international pressure, forced Syria to withdraw its troops from the country, ending a 29-year deployment.
Syria was widely suspected of having a hand in Hariri's murder, but has denied any involvement.