Hariri: 837 Days Later, the Scene of the Crime

Check out my interview with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who spoke passionately about the need for the international tribunal that was finally approved by the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday.

Straining diplomatically not to point a finger at Syria for involvement in the series of political assassinations in Lebanon that the tribunal will judge, Siniora nonetheless accused the Damascus regime of trying to intimidate Lebanese over the tribunal and of working to destabilize the country. Siniora also gave me some insight into how the government plans to resolve the Fatah al-Islam crisis in Tripoli's Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp.

Riding through the streets of Beirut after the interview, I came across two reminders of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, who was Siniora's boyhood chum.

The photo above shows a large billboard in central Beirut that tallies up the number of days that have passed since Hariri's killing above the words, "Lebanon Needs the Truth."

Heading on to West Beirut, I was surprised to discover that by an apparent coincidence, the street where Hariri's six-car motorcade was bombed opened just hours after the U.N. voted on the tribunal for the first time since the assassination. It's been dubbed by some as Beirut's Dealey Plaza.

The above photo shows the traffic moving in the same east-west direction next to the Hotel St. Georges (on the left, not visible in the photo) as Hariri's black Mercedes was traveling at the time. Hariri was going from parliament back to his home/office in West Beirut. In the photo, the recently laid black asphalt covers the huge crater created by the massive bomb blast that killed 23 people in all.

--By Scott MacLeod/Beirut