DAMASCUS/JEDDAH, 23 November 2006 — Under fire from all sides, Syria has gone on the offensive to protest its innocence in the high-profile murder of Lebanese minister Pierre Gemayel that it blames on its foes and accusers in Beirut.

Damascus stressed that the timing, on the day the United Nations endorsed a blueprint for a tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 murder of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, was designed to cause maximum damage to Syria.

Syria has denied persistent accusations of involvement in the Hariri murder.

The anti-Syrian camp in Beirut, faced with a growing challenge from Hezbollah since its war with Israel, is the only party which stands to gain from Gemayel’s assassination, the official press in Damascus argued.

The motive behind Tuesday’s murder was “to block the popular mobilization called by Hezbollah...in order to delay the inevitable fall of a government which has lost its legitimacy,” said the ruling party’s Al-Baath daily.

The Shiite militant group Hezbollah and its allies had planned to take to the streets to demand the replacement of the pro-Western Cabinet of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora with a government of national unity.

Mohamed Habash, a member of the Syrian Parliament, told Arab News that his sympathies lay with the Lebanese people for their loss of an important figure.

“It’s been around 18 months now since the assassination of Hariri and the murderer is still unknown in spite of the international investigation committee,” said Habash. “How come that they knew that Syria was behind the assassination of Pierre Gemayel within 18 minutes,” he said in response to a question regarding comments made by Saad Al-Hariri, son of Rafik Al-Hariri and a current member of the Lebanese Parliament, that Syria was behind the assassination.

He said that Syria should be the last suspect in the assassination because it has no interest in killing Gemayel.

Suad Jarrous, a journalist at the Al-Kifah Al-Arabi magazine, said that the assassination would achieve the aims of the anti-Syrian forces in Lebanon.

“It will strengthen the March 14th forces that receded after the Israeli-Lebanese war in July,” he said, referring to the anti-Syrian Lebanese political block. “The assassination came to handicap the plan of Hezbollah to topple the current government.”

“This assassination...constitutes a lifeline for the government,” said Ath-Thawra.

Prior to the Gemayel killing, Hezbollah, aiming to capitalize on the July-August war with Israel, and other pro-Syrian forces in Lebanon had been on the ascendancy on Lebanon’s fractured political scene.

“The timing of the assassination, just hours before a UN Security Council meeting...raises many questions over a link between the two events,” said Syrian analyst Ayman Abdel-Nour.

“The assassination works against the interests of Damascus because it blocks the actions of the pro-Syrian movements in Lebanon, especially the popular mobilization called for by Hezbollah that is now no longer possible.

“Quite the opposite, now it’s the March 14 forces who are in charge,” said Abdel Nour, who runs an Internet political forum, referring to the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority in Beirut.

Also, isolated by Washington for its alleged meddling in both neighboring Lebanon and Iraq, Damascus had on Tuesday scored what analysts viewed as a rare diplomatic success with the renewal of full diplomatic ties with Baghdad.

“This charade of blaming Syria for every malicious event in Lebanon has been exposed a long time ago and is, simply, losing all credibility,” the Syrian Embassy in Washington said.

“It’s no coincidence that Pierre Gemayel was assassinated on the day the Security Council” was already discussing Lebanon, it said in a statement.