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    November 25, 2011

Lebanese PM Threatening to Quit

   VOA News
   Lebanese Prime Minister designate Najib Mikati, (File).
   Photo: AFP
   Lebanese Prime Minister designate Najib Mikati, (File).

   Lebanon's prime minister is threatening to step down over a growing
   rift with the country's Hezbollah-dominated Cabinet.
   Najib Mikati told Lebanon's LBC television late Thursday that he will
   quit if the Cabinet fails to pay for a U.N. backed tribunal
   investigating the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik
   Hariri . Mikati said his resignation would help protect Lebanon, which
   could face new sanctions but it could also plunge Lebanon into a
   political crisis.
   Hariri and 22 others were killed by a truck bomb in attack in Lebanon's
   capital, Beirut.
   The Hague-based court has issued arrest warrants for four Hezbollah
   operatives in connection with the killing but so far none of them have
   been apprehended.
   The Lebanese-based Hezbollah militant group has denied involvement in
   the slaying.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.

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