Jordan Times
Tuesday, November 8, 2005
King hails Syrian
cooperation with UN
Agencies
HIS MAJESTY KING Abdullah on Monday said he hoped
that Syria's cooperation with the UN on a probe into the assassination of
Lebanon's former premier Rafiq Hariri would avert further escalation in the
region, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.
At a meeting in Amman with Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, King
Abdullah praised Syria's measures to assist chief UN investigator Detlev Mehlis
in his probe into Hariri's killing, particularly after UN Security Council
issued Resolution 1636, demanding Damascus' full cooperation.
Moallem's visit was part of a regional tour.
In Syria, meanwhile, the government is considering a UN request to interview six
top officials about the slaying of Hariri, a foreign ministry official said
Monday. A Lebanese official said earlier that President Bashar Assad's
brother-in-law was one of the six, the Associated Press said.
The foreign ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he
was not authorised to speak to journalists, confirmed the request to talk with
six officials was received Sunday and said the government was “considering” it.
He declined to disclose the identities of the six people or say whether the
United Nations wanted to talk with them in Syria or elsewhere. A Lebanese
official close to the investigation told the Associated Press on Saturday that
the investigators wanted to question six people, including Gen. Assef Shawkat,
Assad's brother-in-law who is chief of Syria's military intelligence service.
The pan-Arab newspaper Al Hayat said the others were Maj. Gen. Bahjat Suleiman,
former chief of Syria's internal intelligence, Brig. Gen. Rustum Ghazale, Syrian
intelligence chief in Lebanon when Hariri was killed, Gen. Jameh Jameh,
Ghazale's assistant in Beirut, Gen. Abdul Karim Abbas, head of Syrian
intelligence's Palestinian section, and Gen. Zafer Youssef, head of
intelligence's communications and Internet section.
The list did not include Assad's younger brother, Maher Assad, who was named
along with Shawkat in an interim report to the Security Council last month by
Mehlis.
The report said Hariri, slain February 14 by a truck bomb that killed 20 other
people, could not have been assassinated without the complicity of Syrian and
Lebanese intelligence.
Syria, which denies any role in the killing, has rejected the findings as
lacking evidence and accused the Mehlis commission of politicising the issue.
Mehlis' report accused Assad's regime of cooperating only to a “limited degree”
and said government officials attended the hearings at which investigators
questioned Syrians about the assassination.
In its resolution, the Security Council upgraded the powers of the commission,
giving Mehlis the right to question anyone at any location and under conditions
of his choice.
Officials from the United States and Britain, which co-sponsored the resolution
with France, reiterated Monday that Syria had to cooperate with the
investigation.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair told reporters in London that Syria must
respect the resolution as Mehlis had delivered “a very, very serious report for
Syria.” In Beirut, Deputy Assistant US Secretary of State for Near Eastern
Affairs Elizabeth Dibble said: “The ball now is in the Syrian court to
cooperate, and [we] very much hope that the Syrian government will cooperate
with Judge Mehlis in his investigation.” British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw
indicated the European Union will not invite Assad to a Euro-Mediterranean
summit this month in an apparent protest against insufficient Syrian cooperation
with the UN probe.
Straw, whose country holds the EU presidency, did not answer when asked if Assad
was invited, telling reporters in Brussels only that Syrian Foreign Minister
Farouq Sharaa “is being invited in the normal way to the Euro-Med meeting.”
Other EU officials confirmed Assad would not be invited.
Washington also has accused Syria of letting foreign extremists cross its border
to join the insurgency in Iraq and supporting Palestinian groups. Syria denies
that.
Sharaa reiterated Monday that Syria is “keen” to cooperate fully with the UN
investigation, the official Syria Arab News Agency said.
Sharaa was quoted as saying Assad's government wants the commission's work to be
“professional, aimed at uncovering the truth” about Hariri's assassination.
In a sign of cooperation, a special Syrian judicial committee recently formed to
probe Hariri's murder began reviewing information received from individuals,
faxes and e-mails Thursday and questioned several witnesses, Syrian Prosecutor
General Ghada Murad said late Monday. She declined to elaborate on the
information nor who was interviewed.
The committee will cooperate with the UN team and Lebanese authorities, Murad
told reporters, “within legal frameworks and on the principle of the accused are
innocent until proven otherwise.” The killing of Hariri, who was seen as an
opponent of Syrian influence in Lebanon, was a turning point in relations
between the two neighbours.
Lebanese staged mass demonstrations against Syria and international pressure on
Assad's regime increased, forcing the withdrawal of Syrian troops after a
29-year military presence.