Syrian officials confirmed on Tuesday that Damascus has received
a request by a UN investigation commission to interview President
Bashar al-Assad in the probe into the killing of former Lebanese
Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Bashali Kanfani, director of the Foreign Media Department of the
Foreign Ministry, told Xinhua over phone that Syria received the
request on Sunday to interview Assad and Foreign Minister Farouk
al-Shara concerning the case.
She declined to give further details, saying that the request
was not submitted to the Foreign Ministry but to the Syrian
government.
Namir Ganim, chairman of the Foreign Committee of the Syrian
People's Assembly (parliament), also told Xinhua that legal experts
at the Foreign Ministry were studying the request.
"If they consider that the request does not infringe upon
national sovereignty and dignity, Syria will provide as much
cooperation as it can with the commission," Ganim said.
Former Syrian Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam, who is living
in Paris, accused in an interview with the Dubai-based al-Arabiya
television on Friday that President Assad had threatened Hariri
just months before he was assassinated in a car bomb blast on Feb.
14.
Khaddam said Syrian intelligence services could not have carried
out such an operation without Assad being informed.
Following the allegation, the UN commission in Beirut sought to
interview Assad, Shara and other senior officials and was waiting
for an answer.
Outgoing chief UN investigator Detlev Mehlis submitted two
interim reports in October and December, accusing Syrian and
Lebanese officials of being involved in the killing of Hariri.
The UN Security Council demanded full Syrian cooperation with
the international probe.
Syria has denied any role in the killing and dismissed the UN
charge of slow cooperation as "inaccurate."
(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2006)
