DAMASCUS, Oct 22: Syria pledged on Saturday to cooperate with the international community following a UN report on the murder of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri that implicated top Syrian figures and raised the threat of international sanctions.
But officials in Damascus rejected the contents of the probe’s report as biased and aimed at hurting Syria.
“Syria remains committed to the decisions of international legality, and we will continue to cooperate with the international community,” foreign ministry counsellor Riad Daudi told a press conference in the Syrian capital.
Mr Daudi called the report ‘without any foundation’, and ‘politicized with a view to harming Syria’.
Deputy Foreign Minister Ahmed Arnus also criticized the report by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, which also implicated senior Lebanese security officials in the Feb 14 murder, saying it was ‘based on preconceived ideas’.
Syria will be the ‘only one to suffer the negative consequences of this report’, he said.
The report, released in New York on Thursday, found ‘converging evidence’ of Syrian and Lebanese involvement and accused Damascus of blocking and misleading the probe.
“It is incumbent upon Syria to clarify a considerable part of the unresolved questions,” the report said.
One version of the report includes witness testimony that named President Bashar al Assad’s brother, Maher, who is chief of the presidential guard and his brother-in-law Assef Shawkat, who heads military intelligence, as being part of a circle that plotted the assassination.
US President George Bush called the report ‘deeply disturbing’.
And Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said: “There will have to be some way to ensure accountability for what has already been found here.”
The blast that killed Rafik Hariri and 20 other people on the Beirut seafront sparked political turmoil for Syria.
Amid international outcry over the assassination and widespread finger-pointing at Damascus, Syria was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in April after a 29-year military presence.
The country was further rattled by the death on Oct 12 of Syria’s former strongman in Lebanon, Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan, who was questioned over the assassination of Rafik Hariri.
The government said Mr Kanaan committed suicide by shooting himself in the mouth.
Analysts said that for Syria, slapped with US sanctions last year and seeing deteriorating relations with Europe and even some Arab countries, the explosive allegations contained in the UN report were likely to bring matters to a head.
The report will mark ‘the beginning of negotiation or confrontation’ between Damascus and the international community, said Lebanese political analyst Joseph Bahut.
Syria’s state-run newspaper Tishrin echoed the retorts of Syrian officials who had rejected the results of the four-month-long UN probe as erroneous and politically motivated.
“In a crime such as the one committed against Rafik Hariri, the investigation lasts years and not a few months. The results of the report constitute a mix of contradictions.”
Syrians on the streets of the capital blamed the United States for skewing the report and also voiced concern.
“Americans want to extend their hegemony over Iraq across the entire region via this report,” said Samir, a 28-year-old information technology professional.
“Why all this talk about Hariri? Why doesn’t anyone do anything about the Palestinians who are being killed every day, not to mention the Iraqis?” asked a man who gave his name as Samir.
“This is starting to become too much,” said Joseph Yazigi, a businessman.
“The Hariri assassination, the suicide of (Syrian Interior Minister) Ghazi Kanaan ten days ago, and now the Mehlis report. Where are we going?” —AFP
