Israeli politicians from the left and right on Friday called for changes in the Syrian leadership, after a United Nations probe concluded that the plot to assassinate former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri must have had the approval of Syrian security officials, backed by the collusion of their Lebanese counterparts. The interim findings, issued to the UN Security Council late Thursday, drew the first official link between Damascus and the February 14 slaying of Hariri, a popular opposition leader. The council is scheduled to discuss the report Tuesday and is expected to push for sanctions against Syria. Both Syria and Lebanon have denied the accusations contained in the report. „I think there needs to be change in Syria,” said Vice Premier Shimon Peres, adding that the United States and France should take the lead in deciding on an international response to the findings. Referring to Syrian President Bashar Assad and his relatives in positions of power, Peres told Israel Radio: „If it is true that the government is involved in the murder, this will shake up the rule of the Assads.” He added that it is „not natural or acceptable” for a family representing a small minority to rule Syria in what he said was a brutal fashion. The UN report stopped short of pointing a blaming finger at Assad or his inner circle, but accused Syria of failing to cooperate and said the plot to kill Hariri in a car bomb must have had the blessing of Syrian security officials. The report includes a single reference to Assef Shawkat, Assad’s brother-in-law and the Syrian intelligence chief.
According to one witness, Shawkat forced a man to tape a claim of responsibility for Hariri’s killing 15 days before it occurred. Likud MK Yuval Steinitz, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, called for regime change in Damascus. „As far as I am concerned… and here I have a dispute with some of the people in the security establishment, it is not just an American interest but a clear Israeli interest to end the Assad dynasty and replace Bashar Assad,” he said. Ephraim Halevy, former chief of the Mossad espionage agency, said it was not necessary to prove a direct involvement by Assad. „The head of the Syrian pyramid is Bashar Assad,” Halevy told Army Radio. „I don’t think… there is any doubt that this was an extensive and coordinated operation that was planned for many months. Lots of people from the Syrian elite were involved.” Syria denies involvement in Hariri death Syria’s information minister said Friday that the UN report was politically motivated and untrue. „It seems the report is completely political and a political statement directed towards Syria,” Mahdi Dakhl-Allah told Al-Jazeera television, in the first comment by a Syrian minister on the findings. „The report is far from the truth. It was not professional and will not arrive at the truth but will be part of a deception and great tension in this region,” he said. A pro-Syrian Palestinian leader also rejected on Friday accusations in the UN report of involvement in Hariri’s assassination. „We completely reject the implication of any of our factions in this case,” said Ahmed Jibril, head of the Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP). „We say we were surprised with the … report, which tried to implicate some of our factions by saying they gave some support to Lebanese security leaders,” he told Al Arabiya television. The exhaustive report will almost certainly stoke fears of violence and inflame tensions in the region. Chief investigator Detlev Mehlis was careful not to assign blame, but cites witness testimony that strongly implicates several officials as conspiring to assassinate Hariri. Lebanon has already arrested four of them, all Lebanese generals close to Syria. The decision to assassinate Hariri „could not have been taken without the approval of top-ranked Syrian security officials and could not have been further organized without the collusion of their counterparts in the Lebanese security services,” the report said. The report raised questions about Lebanon’s pro-Syrian president, Emile Lahoud, who received a phone call minutes before the blast from the brother of a prominent member of a pro-Syrian group, who also called one of the four arrested generals, Raymond Azar. But Lahoud says he had no contact with the suspect named in the UN probe. „The press office in the presidential palace categorically denies this information, which has no basis in truth and is a part of pressure campaigns against the president,” it said in a statement. Lahoud was battling to remain in power as of Friday morning, as two members of the Lebanese parliament called on him to resign from his post. Mehlis said the leads the UN has found must be followed up before all the details of Hariri’s killing will be known. He asked for more time to work with Lebanese investigators, and in a letter accompanying the report, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he would extend Mehlis’ investigation until December 15. UN: Syria must cooperate In one of the most critical parts of the report, Mehlis said that Syria must cooperate if the continued investigation is to succeed. He accused Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa of having lied in a letter sent to Mehlis’ commission, though he doesn’t give details. „If the investigation is to be completed, it is essential that the government of Syria fully cooperate with the investigating authorities, including by allowing interviews to be held outside Syria and for interviewees not to be accompanied by Syrian officials,” Mehlis said. There wasn’t a single reference in the report to Syria’s Interior Minister Ghazi Kenaan, who had been questioned by Mehlis’ team. Syria said he committed suicide last week, but many Lebanese have called the circumstances suspicious. U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said shortly after the report’s release that the United States has „considered various contingencies” but would decide what to do next only after it had read the report and consulted with „other interested governments.” „An initial reading of the report indicates some deeply troubling findings and clearly the report requires further discussion by the international community,” U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. Earlier this week, a U.S. official and two UN diplomats said the United States and France were preparing new Security Council resolutions critical of Syria over its alleged involvement in the assassination and alleged arms funneling to Lebanese militias. In meticulous detail, the report documents how Hariri’s movements and phone conversations had been monitored for months. It casts suspicion on a decision by one of the four arrested Lebanese generals, Ali Hajj, to reduce Hariri’s state security detail from 40 to eight in November, 2004. Mehlis draws attention to Sheik Ahmed Abdel-Al, a prominent figure in the pro-Syrian Al-Ahbash Sunni Muslim Orthodox group, whom he called a „a key figure in an ongoing investigation.” Abdel-Al had extensive contacts with top Lebanese security officials before and after the blast, and tried to hide information from investigators. It was his brother who called Lahoud just before the blast. The 53-page report goes on to outline Hariri’s worsening relationship with Syrian officials and said the motive for his death appeared to have been political. Hariri had fallen out with Syria and eventually resigned in October, 2004, a month after a decision to change Lebanon’s laws and extend Lahoud’s term. Pro-Syrian opponents had accused Hariri of being the driving force behind a UN resolution last September which unsuccessful attempted to stop Lebanon’s parliament from extending the term of Lahoud, his longtime rival. The resolution also demanded the withdrawal of Syrian troops and intelligence operatives from Lebanon. The report cites a witness as saying that Lebanese and Syrian officials had decided to assassinate Hariri about two weeks after the UN Security Council adopted the resolution. One witness said that Brig. Gen. Mustafa Hamdan, another of the four generals under arrest, ended an October, 2004 conversation by saying: „We are going to send him on a trip, bye, bye Hariri.”
BPI-info
BPI-info
