BEIRUT, 30 December 2005 — Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa has suspended his efforts to mediate a rapprochement between Syria and Lebanon. “We will have to wait some time, because our efforts have been thwarted by false accusations of a deal (with Syria) to close the dossier of inquiry,” into the murder of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri, the An-Nahar newspaper quoted Moussa as saying.
“The Saudi and Egyptian initiatives have also been interrupted.” he said, without elaborating.
Moussa said he was waiting for “a change in attitude from Lebanon.”
On Sunday Moussa rejected accusations he was concocting a deal to clear Damascus of Hariri’s assassination. He described as “completely unfounded” accusations in Lebanon that the pan-Arab body was working on an initiative whereby the probe into the February murder would be closed in exchange for an end to assassinations that have been blamed by many on Syria.
“A deal that would conceal the truth in this affair was never even considered,” Moussa said in a statement.
An investigation led by the United Nations has implicated a number of Syrian and former Lebanese security officials in Hariri’s assassination.
Earlier this month, Moussa went on a fence-mending mission to Beirut and Damascus, in the aftermath of the assassination of anti-Syrian MP Gebran Tueni, also the owner of An-Nahar.
Yesterday a Lebanese Cabinet minister urged the UN probe panel to summon Syria’s foreign minister for comments in which he suggested that Hariri had lied about being threatened by the Syrian president.
Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh also said Foreign Minister Farouk Shara should stand trial, accusing him of misleading the commission.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Shara suggested Hariri lied to Lebanese politicians when he told them he was threatened by Syrian President Bashar Assad at a meeting on Aug. 26, 2004.
