AFP - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stressed her support for a UN probe into the killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri during a meeting with his son, the current Lebanese premier, an official said.
"Secretary Clinton expressed her strong support for the independence and sovereignty of Lebanon," said a source who attended the meeting with Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
Clinton "expressed very clearly her support for the Hariri tribunal."
The top US diplomat had earlier met with Saudi King Abdullah, with whom she also discussed the simmering political crisis in Lebanon.
For months, Lebanon has been at a political impasse over reports the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) is set to indict members of the powerful Hezbollah movement in connection with Rafiq Hariri's assassination.
Hezbollah, a heavily-armed Shiite movement backed by Syria and Iran, has warned it would not accept such an outcome and accuses the STL of being part of a US-Israeli plot.
The group has been pressuring Hariri, who is backed by the West and Saudi Arabia, to disavow the tribunal and warned that Lebanon could be plunged into a full-blown crisis should any of its members be implicated.
The elder Hariri was killed by a massive bomb in Beirut in 2005 that was widely blamed on Syria and sparked massive protests that led Damascus to withdraw its troops from the country.
Syria has always denied any involvement in the explosion.
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