VIENNA, 6 December 2005 — UN investigators began questioning five Syrian officials under a cloak of secrecy in Vienna yesterday over the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Al-Hariri, diplomatic sources said.
Syria, which denies any role in the killing, agreed to let investigators quiz the men at UN offices in the Austrian capital after getting guarantees from permanent UN Security Council member Russia that they could return to Damascus afterward, diplomats said.
“This is the case,” a diplomatic source said when asked if questioning had started yesterday, declining further comment. The Security Council has warned Syria to cooperate with the probe or face unspecified action that could lead to sanctions.
An interim report in October by the chief UN investigator, Detlev Mehlis, suggested the Feb. 14 truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22 other people in Beirut was planned by top Syrian security officials in Damascus and their Lebanese allies.
Syrian President Bashar Assad told France 3 television yesterday he had “no doubt” that Syria would be proven innocent of involvement in Hariri’s killing.
“We are confident of our innocence. No criminal proof, and it is not in the interest of Syria to commit such an act,” he said, adding there had been “some witnesses who have given false evidence ... to only serve one point of view in this inquiry...
“We first of all expect this inquiry to be professional and expect (it) to rectify the mistakes committed (to lead to) a fair and objective report which can tell the truth about this crime that cost the life of... Hariri.” Diplomats said the five officials being questioned in Vienna included Syria’s former intelligence chief in Lebanon, Lt. Gen. Rustom Ghazali, before Damascus withdrew forces from its small neighbor in April after 29 years. Ghazali was the first to be questioned, they said.
A diplomatic source named the others as Lt. Gen. Thafer Youssef, Lt. Gen. Abdul-Karim Abbas, and a Ghazali aide, Jamea Jamea. The fifth was a civilian official, a Syrian source said. Diplomats said Mehlis could ask for the arrest of some of the five after they return home. Syria’s reaction could determine whether Mehlis eventually declares it in breach of a Security Council resolution demanding cooperation with the investigation.
UN investigators have interviewed more than 500 people over the killing and Mehlis, a German prosecutor, has said his team might ask to question more Syrian officials. On Mehlis’ recommendation, Lebanon has charged with murder four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals.
Lebanon’s government has asked UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to extend the mandate for the inquiry for six months beyond the Dec. 15 deadline and be open to further extensions.
Analysts say Assad faces a dilemma: Rein in powerful figures in Syria’s security apparatus whom he has never dominated as his late father Hafez Assad did, or do nothing and invite a ruinous showdown with the United Nations.
Inaction could expose Damascus to international isolation, sanctions and possibly attempts at “regime change,” as its chief big power critic the United States calls it, they say.
Syria, meanwhile, denied yesterday any role in the mass grave discovered recently in eastern Lebanon near a former Syrian military base. Syria’s state-controlled media accused circles within Lebanon of trying to produce “ill-founded evidence alluding that Syria is responsible for this grave.”
Syria said accusations of the Syrian responsibility were part of a campaign to harm Syria.
Syria has attributed the mass grave to the Lebanese civil war in which thousands were killed or missing, adding that the Lebanese faction leaders “who committed many crimes, have turned today into political tokens.”
