What Is It That P.M. Hariri Is Not Telling Us?

When you’re surrounded by treacherous, backstabbing neighbors and countrymen who are out to get you, where do you get the confidence and cold blood to say things like:

[The STL is an] international institution that is present on its own and is not governed by any political power balances and more importantly there is no possibility whatsoever to give up on the blood of martyr Premier Rafik Hariri. This will be achieved through patience, firmness and holding to [our principles] without being dragged to any issue that would drive Lebanon into a cycle of instability

As Qifa Nabki puts it:

Hizbullah has made it clear that it is not going to meet Hariri halfway, and so one wonders: why is he bothering to make these half-hearted concessions and send mixed signals about the STL? Is he still hoping that the “Syrian-Saudi agreement” will pressure Hizbullah to find some kind of face-saving solution for everyone involved?

Hezbollah is clearly mobilizing its supporters for some future street action and is waging a vicious media campaign to discredit the STL. All we have seen from Mr. Hariri so far are calls for calm and for steadfastness. But where’s the beef? Where are the action plans? The contingency preparations? We have no clue.

The theory is that Mr. Hariri and the Syrians have sinister backroom plans for Hezbollah when push comes to shove and the STL makes its official indictment. But can we really trust the Syrians?