DAMASCUS, 26 October 2005 — Syria yesterday welcomed a suggestion from the head of a UN probe into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri that Damascus launch its own probe into the killing.
“We in Syria have no reservations whatsoever regarding the suggestion by Mr. Detlev Mehlis that Syria could launch its own investigation in the killing of Hariri,” Syrian Foreign Ministry legal adviser Riad Al-Doudi said.
Speaking to the Doha-based Al-Jazeera satellite TV minutes after Mehlis made a presentation at a UN Security Council session to discuss his report, Al-Doudi said Syria had always been fully cooperative with the UN inquiry team and it would continue to provide “unlimited support and cooperation” to make the investigation a success.
Al-Doudi, however, urged Mehlis to clearly define “the kind of cooperation he wants from Damascus and the procedures and mechanisms required for making his mission a success.”
“We want the investigation team to conduct their future job with full sense of responsibility and transparency,” Al Doudi said, stressing that respecting Syria’s sovereignty will be the only condition Damascus would ask the team for while continuing their mission.
Addressing the UN Security Council, Mehlis had urged “greater cooperation” from Syria. He said that over a 130-day period, his team of 30 investigators from 17 countries had interviewed more than 400 witnesses and suspects, reviewed roughly 60,000 documents and produced more than 16,500 pages of documents.
But he made it clear that more work needed to be done to “further investigate our findings and look into emerging leads.” “For such a multidimensional and complex case as the one under review, the investigation cannot be considered complete as of now,” said Mehlis. “The commission is of the view that this would provide yet another opportunity for the Syrian authorities to show greater and meaningful cooperation and to provide any relevant substantial evidence on the assassination,” he added.
Mehlis also suggested that Syrian authorities conduct their own investigation into the murder “in an open and transparent manner.”
“This would enable the commission to ‘fill in the gaps’ and to have a clearer picture about the organizers and perpetrators of the Feb. 14 terrorist act,” he said.
Mehlis also said his team “has received a number of threats which were deemed, in the assessment of our security personnel, to be credible.”
The Damascus response to Mehlis’ suggestion came as US President George W. Bush said military action was a last resort against Syria and a Lebanese Army surveyor was killed by gunfire from across Syria.
When asked about the UN investigation, Bush told Al-Arabiya television in an interview: “A military (option) is always the last choice of a president. I am hoping that they will cooperate. It (military action) is the last — very last option. But on the other hand, you know — and I’ve worked hard for diplomacy and will continue to work the diplomatic angle on this issue.”
The Lebanese surveyor was killed in the Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border. “A Lebanese army technical team on a mission at the border... was targeted by gunfire from armed men,” the Lebanese Army said. “A civil technician, Mohammed Ismail, was killed.”
Ismail was working in an area where the border is not demarcated.
Lebanese security sources pointed the finger of blame at Palestinian militants from the Fatah-Intifada faction, whose camps are based in Halwa in the hilly border region.
