Pierre A. Maroun
Secretary General
ALCC
Secretary General
ALCC
|
|
|
Mr. Walid Maalouf
Director of Public
Diplomacy for ME
and MEPI-USAID
Director of Public
Diplomacy for ME
and MEPI-USAID
| UN probe chief meets Syria president over Hariri murder by Nayla Razzouk, BEIRUT, Lebanon - April 25, 06 Top UN investigator Serge Brammertz met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the first time Tuesday over the murder of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, in which Damascus has been implicated. "Two separate meetings took place -- one with President Bashar al-Assad and one with Vice President Faruq al-Shara," a UN spokeswoman said after the talks in Damascus. Two reports by the UN commission of inquiry have implicated senior Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies in Hariri's murder in a massive bomb blast on the Beirut seafront on February 14, 2005 that also killed another 22 people. They have also criticised the Syrian government for failing to cooperate more with the investigation and have long sought interviews with top regime officials. It was the first time that the UN investigators met Assad, who had confirmed last month that he had agreed to receive them but insisted it would be a "meeting and not an interrogation." Syria, which had been the main powerbroker in Lebanon for years before it pulled out its troops following Hariri's murder, has strongly denied any involvement in the killing and accused the United Nations of bias. However, former Syrian vice-president Abdel Halim Khaddam, who is now living in exile in France, has claimed that Assad personally ordered the assassination -- allegations also dismissed by Damascus. Lebanon on Wednesday will mark the first anniversary of Syria's withdrawal of its troops after a 29-year military presence, although the regime in Damascus continues to wield power in its smaller neighbour. The Lebanese newspaper Al-Liwa said that Brammertz had met on Monday with Adib Dawoodi, legal advisor to the Syrian government, at the UN commission's heavily-protected headquarters in the Monteverde region in mountains east of Beirut. The UN spokeswoman did not disclose more details on Tuesday's meetings in Damascus or whether Brammertz had returned to Lebanon where the UN commission of inquiry is based. However, an AFP correspondent later saw Brammertz's convoy later crossing the frontier from Syria. In his latest report to the UN Security Council in March, Brammertz cited progress in his investigation into Hariri's killing but stressed that Syrian cooperation would be critical if it was to make further headway. Brammertz, who last travelled to Damascus on February 23 to meet with Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, had announced in his March report that he would meet both Assad and Shara this month. But long discussions over the format of the meetings had delayed Brammertz's trip, after Assad insisted the investigation should respect Syria's sovereignty. On November 12, Brammertz met with Assad's protege, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, whose has seen four of his top security chiefs arrested over Hariri's murder and is facing calls from anti-Syrian politicians to stand down. Last week, Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora held talks in the United States with President George W. Bush who called for justice to be done. Siniora, who was a close aide to Hariri, also met UN chief Kofi Annan to discuss the creation of an international court to judge those behind the killing. Copyright 2005 AFP. |