A Poisonous Debate

Ghassan Charbel relays the testimonies of two people who were analyzing the STL from opposite angles:

[One speaker said:] asking Hezbollah to calmly react to the indictment would be like asking it to drink a poison cup, and it is something that it will not do

[the other speaker said:] What is required of Saad Hariri is unrealistic and exceeds his tolerance ability […] Asking him to wash his hands of the tribunal would be like asking him to drink a poison cup

He eventually concludes that both sides have strengths and weaknesses and that they should reach some sort of compromise.

Everyone is discussing this in terms of the political implications of the STL. They all seem to forget that someone killed Hariri 5 years ago, and if that someone turned out to be a Hezbollah member (using clear and transparent evidence), we shouldn’t blame the Tribunal for causing instability, because that would be like shooting the messenger. What would cause instability is the (still not proven) fact that Hezbollah members killed Hariri 5 years ago.