BEIRUT: Future Movement Secretary-general Ahmad Hariri has said that the March 14 coalition is ready to challenge Hezbollah on the divisive issue of “false witnesses” in the case of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

“The Future Movement and March 14 forces are ready to go with the so-called false witnesses’ file to the very end,” Ahmad Hariri said in remarks published Tuesday by the Kuwaiti daily Al-Anbaa.

Hariri also accused the March 8 alliance, with Hezbollah at the forefront, of continuing to “weave fabrications against March 14 that are not true.”

“We are ready to face all accusations made by Hezbollah and its allies about false witnesses or fraud investigation,” he stressed.

Lebanon’s judiciary found three Syrians guilty of misleading the investigation into the 2005 assassination of Hariri.

Responding to a question as to why Hezbollah and its ally the Free Patriotic Movement were seeking to revive the “false witnesses” issue, Hariri said Hezbollah wants to “shift its status from being accused to the one that issues accusations.”

Asked by Al-Anbaa about what it described as leaks that Hezbollah had plans to assassinate Syrian opposition leaders, Hariri said:“Hezbollah is an expert in assassinations, particularly since four of its leaders are accused of assassinating martyr [former] Prime Minister Rafik Hariri."