Rizk: International Tribunal Wouldn't Target Regimes

by **Admin** Sun Apr 06, 2008 1:49 am

Justice Minister Charles Rizk said Friday the international tribunal would be a judicial body "not a political tool targeting this regime or that."

Rizk, talking to reporters after meeting Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, was apparently responding to charges that the tribunal would be used to threaten Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime that had been blamed for ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's 2005 assassination, which the international body would look into.

Syria has denied involvement in the crime and said it would not cooperate with the international tribunal.

Rizk said he discussed with Berri latest developments and the headlines of an Arab tour that the speaker plans to launch in an effort to rally support for a new initiative aimed at patching up differences between leaders of the majority and opposition.

"He (Berri) did not brief me on details of his tour because the plan is still in the making. We hope he would succeed in his effort … to facilitate election of a president," Rizk added.