* Reaction To Nasrallah’s Statement On Tribunal

What I find more puzzling than Hezbollah’s leader’s bombshell assertion that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) is an “Israeli Project”, is the muted response it got from the March 14 camp.

The Future Movement’s response in particular was remarkably tepid, but that perhaps could be attributed to P.M.’s Hariri’s desire to keep his upcoming visit to Syria trouble-free. I also sense that Saudi Arabia wants to underplay this. Alarabiya’s website, a Saudi megaphone, doesn’t show the allegation on its main page although in the past it was quick to pounce on anything Hezbollah’s leader said.

That doesn’t make the situation any less absurd. The leader of Hezbollah makes a dangerous allegation about the STL and all we hear in return are grumbles from political pipsqueaks?

Some of that is due to the fact that the statement was a surprise. According to Annahar, the allegation was not part of the text that Hezbollah distributed to the media in advance. But there must be another element to this. Is it an active downplaying by regional powers, or is it simply the fact that Mr. Nassrallah has lost his capacity to anger?

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