BEIRUT, Oct 12: “This is going to be the final declaration that I can make,” Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan, the former military intelligence chief for Lebanon, told startled radio Lebanese listeners in a live interview.

Hours later, Syria’s state news agency announced Mr Kaanan had committed suicide in his office.

How Mr Kanaan, who had been questioned by the United Nations team investigating the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, knew he was making his final declaration is a secret he will take to the grave.

What is clear is that he used this extraordinary last public statement as his final word for posterity, settling scores with enemies and affirming his complete innocence in the murder of Hariri.

He made an impassioned defence of Syria’s presence Lebanon, saying his country’s troops had “done their utmost to preserve the unity of Lebanon”, while accusing the media of damaging relations between the two countries.

Kanaan, 63, said media reports since the February 14 assassination of Hariri had wronged both himself and the former Lebanese premier, whose killing was widely blamed on Syria despite its repeated denials.

“We have affection and mutual respect for Lebanon ... We have served the interests of Lebanon with dignity,” he said in the dramatic intervention.

“I will let the people of Lebanon pronounce their verdict. Our action allowed us to reunify Lebanon, while this unity... would have been impossible without Syria.

He said he had called Voice of Lebanon radio station to react to a report Tuesday night on Lebanon’s private television NTV which he said amounted to “lies aimed at fooling public opinion”.

“I am calling you to give a declaration concerning what was broadcast Tuesday on NTV which has not ceased to broadcast lies aimed at fooling public opinion especially concerning what happened when I met the UN commission of enquiry and Syria’s assistance to come to the truth as Syria has an interest that the truth comes out”.

Kanaan denied the station’s account of his meeting with the UN commission, which he said Syria was helping to reach the truth on Hariri’s murder.

“As for my testimony, light was shed on the period when I served in Lebanon and I spoke about everything that I was asked,” he said, adding the commission had a transcript of the interview that backed his own account.

“I wonder if the motivation of this station was its hatred of Hariri that is known to everyone or if someone fed them the poison and they fell into the trap,” said Kanaan.

NTV reported that Kanaan had received tens of millions of dollars to push through an electoral law that allowed Hariri to win parliamentary elections in 2000 at a time when he was in opposition.

“If we had benefited so much from Rafiq Hariri, I don’t understand how we could have killed him,” he said. —AFP