Early Tuesday, Jan. 18, thousands of followers of the two Lebanese Shiite organizations, Hizballah and Amal, unarmed but clad in black uniforms, took up positions in seven Beirut districts. By the time the first Lebanese army units reached the streets, the city's traffic was tied up and several schools and government institutions were unable to open their doors.

That evening, the Shiite loyalists were ordered to withdraw. They had proved the Shiites of Hassan Nasrllah's Hizballah and Amal (led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri) were capable of seizing control of the capital's main quarters. That night, high-ranking Hizballah sources declared confidently: "Time for talking is over, it is time for action now. The other camp wants confrontation, so be it."
That this was no idle boast was shown by several black-uniformed Shiites who reappeared in parts of Beirut Wednesday, Jan. 19.

This was the Lebanese Shiites' concerted response to the gauntlet thrown down Tuesday, Jan. 18 by the

The Special Lebanon Court probing the 2005 Hariri murder, as reported earlier byDEBKAfile.

The Special Lebanon Court registrar Herman von Hebel announced Tuesday, Jan. 18 that if things go well, "we may see the start of the trial toward September/October … with or without an accused." A day earlier, the STL prosecutor Daniel Bellemare submitted his draft indictment to the pre-trial judge Daniel Fransen in The Hague, thereby establishing three facts in the case of the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.

1. An approximate date has been set for the trial to begin, irrespective of the extreme upsets in Lebanon over the case.
2. The prosecution file includes names of accused individuals, members of Hizballah, who will be summoned to appear before the UN court. Bellemare stated in a video clip Tuesday that the accused he cited are presumed innocent even after they are confirmed by the judge – until the prosecution proves their guilt beyond reasonable doubt in court.

3. Any of the accused defying the court summons will be tried in absentia as DEBKAfilereportedly exclusively first in its weekly edition on Dec. 24, 2010 and again in daily DEBKAfileon Jan. 13.
(Click here for second report.)

The registrar also stated Tuesday: "The pretrial judge is very keen to move the process forward as fast as possible."
This means that Fransen will make an effort to hand down his decision on the indictments within 6-10 weeks, much earlier than the several months originally reported, according toDEBKAfile's sources. The court realizes that the longer the court process, the deeper Lebanon will sink into crisis.

Von Hebel also referred to the joint effort Syrian president Bashar Assad, Turkish premier Recep Erdogan and the Qatari emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani were making in Beirut for a compromise that would free the Lebanese government of its commitment to honor the international tribunal's warrants and contribute to its funding. The registrar said: "We know for sure it is not easy to get accused persons arrested. The problem with international tribunals is that they do not have a police force. We are dependent on the cooperation of states."
He then remarked: "The tribunal's budget is $65.7 million for 2011 should not be affected by the collapse of the Lebanese government which is obliged to pay 49 percent. The obligation is for the state, not a government."

That comment is the key to the dispute – both over the tribunal's funding and its legitimacy which Hizballah challenges by refusing to hand over its officials for trial.
Von Hebel, the tribunal's registrar. made it clear that the Lebanese state, not its government, will be held accountable for upholding the UN court's decrees. In other words, the effort engineered from Tehran and Damascus to replace the Hariri government with an alternative will not get Hizballah off the hook. Indeed any administration in Beirut that defies the court lays Lebanon open to a complaint to the UN Security Council by the UN tribunal's judges and a demand for sanctions pending compliance.