Five Lebanese ministers pending activities in the Cabinet

Five Shiite ministers from the Lebanese Hizbullah party and the Amal movement, supporters of the Lebanese President Emil Lahoud, on Monday announced pending their membership in the Cabinet after it decided in a vote to call for an international investigation into the series of assassinations and explosions acts Lebanon had recently witnessed.

The Lebanese minister of water resources and electricity, Muhammad Fenish, who is from the Hizbullah party, said that their decision is not a resignation, rather pending the membership in the Cabinet waiting for the decision of the political leadership. Fenish added their objection stems from what he sees as the attempts of others to internationalize all issues in Lebanon.

The Shiite ministers include the foreign minister Fawzi al-Saloukh, the labor minister Tarrad Hamadeh from Hizbullah and two ministers from the Amal movement. The Lebanese minister of the environment Yaqoub Sarraf who is a Christian and supporter for the Lebanese President Emil Lahoud also decided to suspend his membership in the government.

The Lebanese prime minister Fouad Siniora had called for the convening of an emergency session for the Lebanese cabinet following the assassination of the well-known Lebanese parliamentarian and media man Jubran Tweini in a booby trapped car explosion in East Beirut.

The Lebanese government asked the UN to form an international court in order to try the persons suspected in the killing of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri on February 14 this year.