Syria has reservations on Hariri probe

Syria has reservations about the findings of the UN investigation into the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, but will continue to co-operate, a cabinet minister has said.

Minister of Expatriates Bouthaina Shaaban said the investigation is based on a pre-conceived idea that Syria was behind the February 14 bomb blast that killed Hariri and 20 other people in central Beirut.

In a phone interview, she said Syria believes the UN investigators are not giving enough attention to the technical aspects of the bombing that killed Hariri, and that they are focusing on Syria rather than looking for other culprits.

“We hope that the commission will search for the real criminals because that would be in the interest of Syria and Lebanon,” Shaaban said yesterday.

Presenting his latest report to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, chief investigator Detlev Mehlis said new evidence reaffirmed his suspicion that Syrian intelligence played a role in Hariri’s assassination.

He also said five Syrian officials were suspects and accused Syria of reluctantly co-operating with the probe – a charge that Syria promptly denied.

Syria, which dominated Lebanon at the time of the assassination, has repeatedly denied any involvement in Hariri’s murder.

Hariri was seen as a quiet opponent of Syria, and his killing sparked mass protests against Syria, which combined with international pressure, forced Damascus to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in April, ending a 29-year military presence in the country.

Shaaban said that those who killed Hariri were also responsible for the subsequent series of bombings. On Monday, the leading Lebanese MP and newspaper editor Gibran Tueni was killed by a car bomb.

She said Tueni’s assassination “targeted Syria and Lebanon and aimed also to destabilise the region”.

The UN Security Council is expected to extend the mandate of the UN commission, which expires today, for another six months.

Syria rejected the commission’s first report, which was published in October, saying it was unfounded on evidence and “politicised”.

The report said the assassination could not have occurred without the complicity of Syrian and the Lebanese intelligence services. The Lebanese government welcomed the report.

Four Lebanese generals have been detained for Hariri’s killing.

A pro-government Syrian legislator said today the commission’s findings were “unprofessional”.

Suleiman Hadad told reporters Hariri was murdered to frame Syria and put pressure on the country.

The Syrian government has long argued the UN investigation is being used by the US to try to make Syria change course on the Arab-Israeli conflict, Iraq and Lebanon.

The state-run Al-Baath daily, the mouthpiece of the ruling Baath party, said in an editorial today that the world should not allow the investigation to become a lever for applying pressure to Syria.

“The Syrians did not find in the second report that which could put matters on the right course,” the paper said.