UNITED NATIONS — As a divided U.N. Security Council yesterday established an international tribunal to try suspects in the assassinations of Lebanese political figures, some warned that the decision could lead to increased violence in the country.

In Lebanon, where the United Nations is considered a major political player, violence had erupted while the council was considering the resolution, and some analysts have speculated that the deadly clashes in a Palestinian Arab camp in the northern part of the country were linked to the U.N. deliberations.

The Lebanese foreign minister, Tarek Mitri, thanked the council for passing the resolution. Hinting at the threats of violence by opponents of the international tribunal, he said the Lebanese people “should not be forced to choose between justice and security.”

The tribunal, which according to the Security Council resolution must be established before June 20, would consist of Lebanese and international jurists. It will try suspects in the February 2005 killing of a former prime minister of Lebanon, Rafik Hariri, as well as allegedly pursuant political assassinations.

Yesterday’s council resolution was a “victory the world has given to oppressed Lebanon and a victory for an oppressed Lebanon in the world,” Hariri’s son Saad Hariri said yesterday in the southern city of Sidon.

Ten members of the council supported the resolution, which was sponsored by America, France, Britain, and others, and was enacted under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which makes it mandatory under international law. Five Security Council members — Russia, China, Qatar, Indonesia, and South Africa — abstained.

Calling the resolution’s language a “dubious concept under international law,” the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, said his country had offered several amendments, including the removal of the reference to Chapter 7, but had been rebuffed. He added that similar tribunals established by the council, in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda, were different cases. Those trials, he said, involved war crimes.

The fact that the council was not united in its support “does not change anything about the authority of the resolution,” the French ambassador to the United Nations, Jean-Marc de la Sablière, said.

The violence that the tribunal would address was mostly directed at critics of Syria’s involvement in Lebanon.

At least one report by a U.N.-commissioned investigator, Detlev Mehlis of Germany, has indicated that a brother of President Al-Assad of Syria, Maher Al-Assad, and the president’s brotherin-law, Assef Shawkat, may be linked to the Hariri assassination.

Pro-Syrian politicians in Beirut had succeeded in blocking a vote in Lebanon’s parliament to ratify the international tribunal. Prime Minister Siniora of Lebanon had asked for a “binding ” Security Council resolution to end the internal deadlock.

The Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Jaafari, said his country had nothing to do with yesterday’s resolution. “This is not a Syrian issue,” he told reporters yesterday. “It is purely a Lebanese domestic issue, but with foreign interference.”

In a move that seemed symbolic of the relations between the countries, Mr. Jaafari chose to address the press just as the Lebanese foreign minister made his official speech inside the council room. Asked if the timing of his press appearance had any significance, Mr. Jaafari told The New York Sun, “I leave it up to your wisdom to judge it.”