The Lebanese cabinet has yet to approve a United Nations plan for a tribunal to try those accused of assassinating the former premier, a strong critic of Syrian influence in the country. Neighboring Syria, implicated in a UN report in the car bombing that killed Hariri two years ago, has denied involvement.
Konstantin Kosachev told Saad Hariri, the assassinated premier's son and current parliamentary majority leader, during his working visit to Moscow, "We believe that unnecessary haste should be avoided. Efforts should be made to ensure consolidation, rather than a further split, in Lebanese society."
Lebanon, divided between the largely pro-Syrian Muslim Shia majority led by Islamist group Hezbollah and the Christian minority opposed to Syrian influence, survived a 15-year civil war that ended in 1990.
Last summer the country was devastated by Israeli air strikes during the IDF's campaign against Hezbollah, and at the end of the year Hezbollah-inspired mass rallies were held demanding the government's resignation.
Kosachev, who heads the international committee in the State Duma, parliament's lower house, said Russia backed all UN Security Council resolutions calling for the tribunal to be set up, but said that every legal technicality should be taken into account to deter clashes between opposing factions.
"Work should be organized perfectly in legal terms, so that its [the tribunal's] future decisions could not be challenged by any group," Kosachev said.
Hariri is visiting Moscow in a bid to persuade it to use its influence to halt foreign, above all Syrian, meddling in the Lebanon's domestic affairs. He has already met with Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov and State Duma Deputy Chairman Artur Chilingarov.
Russia, which maintains contacts with all Arab countries and was opposed to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, portrays itself as a "delicate" moderator in the turbulent region.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora came to Russia seeking support in December 2006, days ahead of talks between President Vladimir Putin and his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Asad.
Rafiq Hariri was one of the five high-ranking Lebanese figures to be assassinated over the last two years in a series of murders including Lebanese Christian cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel in November.
