BEIRUT, Oct 20: A UN investigator looked set to implicate senior Syrian and Lebanese officials in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in a report he will submit in New York on Thursday.

Lebanon has already arrested four pro-Syrian Lebanese security chiefs and charged them with murder on the recommendation of the German investigator, Detlev Mehlis.

Diplomats and political sources in Lebanon say Mehlis will also name Syrian officials in his report, which he will give to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York later in the day.

His findings could embarrass Damascus and bolster a US-led campaign to force Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to cooperate with the inquiry, end alleged meddling in Lebanon and Iraq, and halt support for Palestinian militants, diplomats said.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Waleed al-Mualem said France and the United States would use the report to implement a phased plan to isolate Syria and impose economic sanctions against it.

“The first stage consists in influencing Arab countries so that we cut our relations with Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon. We are now at the second stage, which aims to isolate us,” Mualem told France’s Le Figaro in an interview published on Thursday.

“The next one will be to impose economic sanctions via a UN resolution. But we think that the Russians and the Chinese will oppose these sanctions.”

The United States and France have led a diplomatic campaign that helped force Syria to end its 29-year troop presence in Lebanon in April. They were also instrumental in setting up the UN inquiry into Hariri’s death.

Annan is expected to circulate the report on Friday to the 15-member Security Council, Lebanon and possibly, if Syrian officials are named, Syria, Lebanese political sources said.

The Security Council will discuss the report next week and consider its response, which could include sanctions if Syria fails to cooperate, the sources said.

The council will also consider a Lebanese request for continued UN help to bring to trial the suspects in the Feb. 14 truck bomb that killed Hariri and 20 others, they said.

The Beirut government wants Mehlis, who began work in June, to extend his mission to mid-December and says it would prefer an international court to handle the trial of any suspects.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who held talks in London, Paris and Moscow last week, has been preparing the ground for possible international action over the UN findings, even refusing to rule out military action.

Syria is likely to come under heavy pressure to hand over any Syrian suspects named by Mehlis.

Assad, in media interviews this month, has categorically denied any role in the killing of Hariri, who had turned against Syria’s influence in Lebanon in the months before his death.

But Assad also said Syria would consider any nationals involved in the assassination as “traitors” who should be punished, either in a Syrian or an international court.

However, diplomats say it could be difficult for Assad to hand over any security officials, especially members of his inner circle, without seriously weakening his grip on power.

Germany’s Stern magazine reported this week that Mehlis had identified Asef Shawkat, Assad’s brother-in-law and military intelligence chief, as one of five Syrian suspects.

If Mehlis blames Syria and its allies in Lebanon for Hariri’s killing, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud would also be in a tight corner. He rejected calls by anti-Syrian politicians, including Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, for him to resign after the four pro-Syrian generals were arrested in August.

Fearing a violent backlash after the report by powerful pro-Syrian factions, Lebanese security forces have stepped up measures in and around Beirut. Since Hariri’s death, 12 explosions have targeted anti-Syrian journalists, politicians and commercial Christian areas.

“Before and after the Mehlis report, the country’s security will not be exposed to manipulation, thus there is no reason to worry and nothing to fear,” the Lebanese cabinet said.

—Reuters