| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Bashar rattles cabinet |
| 2006-02-12 |
| Syria's president ordered a major Cabinet shake-up Saturday, signaling he has no plans to cave under growing U.S. and international pressure over the assassination of a former Lebanese leader and alleged failure to stop militants from crossing into Iraq. President Bashar Assad named his hard-line Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa as vice president and replace him with his deputy, Walid Moallem, a former ambassador to the United States and United Nations. Al-Sharaa was also put in charge of implementing Syrian "foreign and information policies." The U.N. investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has accused both men of giving false information to the probe. Hariri died in a truck bombing that killed 20 other people in Beirut on Feb. 14, 2005. Syria has denied involvement, although U.N. investigators said the assassination could not have occurred without Damascus' knowledge. Hariri's murder spurred demonstrations in Beirut and intense international pressure that prompted the Syrians to comply with a standing U.N. resolution to pull its troops out of Lebanon after dominating the country for nearly three decades. A U.N. report in October said Assad threatened Hariri at an August 2004 meeting over the extension of the term in office of Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, Hariri's political foe. Syria's former vice president Abdul-Halim Khaddam, a close friend of Hariri who resigned and later defected, has said Assad had threatened Hariri at a meeting months earlier. Al-Sharaa, in a letter to the U.N. commission, said the August 2004 Assad-Hariri meeting was "in the framework of the ongoing political consultation between the Syrian and Lebanese leaders." The former chief U.N. investigator, Detlev Mehlis, accused Moallem of giving the commission false information about a meeting in Beirut with Hariri 13 days before he was killed. According to a taped conversation of that meeting, Moallem told Hariri that "we and the (security) services here have put you into a corner." He continued, "Please do not take things lightly." The Mehlis report said the recorded conversation "clearly contradicts" Moallem's witness account taken in September "in which he falsely described the Feb. 1 meeting as 'friendly and constructive' and avoided giving direct answers to the questions put to him." Syria also repeatedly has rejected accusations from Washington and Baghdad that it is lax in efforts to close its border with Iraq to foreign fighters entering the country to join the insurgency. The Syrians claim they are doing all they can to clamp off the flow of militants. The U.N. commission has asked to interview both Assad and al-Sharaa. Syria has not responded directly, but Assad rejected an earlier request. Syrian political analyst Imad Shuaibi said that naming al-Sharaa as vice-president had been expected "but it was delayed until now in order to show that Syria does not bow to foreign pressures." Al-Sharaa served as foreign minister since 1984, and becomes one of two vice presidents, the other Zuhair Masharqa was named to the post under the late President Hafez Assad, father of the current leader. In all, the reshuffle brought in 15 new ministers to the 34-member Cabinet. |
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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran | |||
| Syrian witness ready to meet rights groups-lawyer | |||
| 2005-12-14 | |||
 A Syrian witness in a U.N. probe into the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri is ready to meet rights groups to show that he was not coerced to recant his testimony, his lawyer said on Tuesday.
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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran | |
| Mehlis: Syrians Burned All Intel Docs re: Lebanon | |
| 2005-12-12 | |
This was indicated by two of the five Syrian officials interrogated in Vienna on Dec. 7 on the assassination of Rafiq Hariri on Feb. 14. Furthermore, no material regarding the Hariri assassination had been found in Syrian intelligence archives. This is one of the matters on which Mehlis recommends further investigation by the UN commission in the six-month extension of the inquiry panelâs mandate he intends to request from the UN Security Council. The second Mehlis report tightens the chain of evidence incriminating Syria in the crime. He notes that only five of the six high-ranking Syrian officers Damascus undertook to make available for questioning were allowed to leave Syria for Vienna. The officer withheld from the team was the presidentâs brother-in-law and security chief Gen. Assef al-Shawqat. The investigation identified 19 individuals as suspects in the planning and execution of the crime or deliberate attempts to mislead the investigation. He makes a point of the witness Husam Taher Hussam, who appeared on Syrian television two weeks ago to withdraw his prior testimony to the commission which he claimed had been coerced. The Commission learned that Hussamâs account to friends before his trip to Syria was similar to the sworn account he gave the panel. His recantation was aired after Syrian officials arrested and threatened some his close relatives in Syria. Their manipulation of Hussam raises serious questions about the commitment of the Syrian Judicial Commission to conduct an inquiry into the Hariri crime. New unnamed witnesses have approached the Commission since it submitted its interim report in October and confirmed its findings with detailed information pointing directly the Lebanese and Syrian intelligence services as perpetrators, sponsors and organizers of the Hariri murder. One reported to the inquiry team that after the assassination, a high-level Syrian official supplied arms and ammunition to groups and individuals in Lebanon to create public disorder in response to accusations of Syrian involvement in the crime. Lebanese military intelligence Technical Divison conducted extensive wiretapping of Haririâs telephones over a sustained period, relaying transcripts daily to top Lebanese and Syrian officials including Raymon Azar, Jamil al Sayyed and Rustum Ghazale. The archives of these transcripts have been deleted but the commission hopes to recover the deleted data. During the period prior to the assassination there was growing tension between Hariri and senior Syrian officials including president Bashar Assad. Following their meeting on August 24, 2004, an informal oral agreement was confirmed which set out what the former Lebanese prime minister was allowed to and not to do in relation to Syria. Another line of investigation still to be explored for motives behind the assassination relates to fraud, corruption and money laundering linked to the collapse of the Lebanese Bank Al Madina in mid-2003. The commission was informed that Hariri declared he would take measures to investigate the bank scandal if he returned to power. | |
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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Mehlis Slams Syria for âPropagandaâ |
| 2005-12-02 |
| Chief UN investigator Detlev Mehlis accused Damascus of using a Syrian witness in the inquiry into the killing of a former Lebanese prime minister as a Communist-like propaganda tool. German prosecutor Mehlis, quoted by a number of Lebanese and Arabs newspapers yesterday, said his investigation had not been undermined by witness Hosam Taher Hosam, who recanted his testimony. Hosam appeared on Syrian television this week to accuse Lebanese officials of an elaborate scheme of threats, bribery and torture to induce him to testify falsely against Syria and said the inquiryâs initial findings rested largely on his lies. âIâm used to this kind of propaganda,â Mehlis was quoted by Beirutâs as-Safir daily as saying. âIâve spent 40 years in Germany and we used to see such things in former eastern European countries.â Mehlisâ interim report in October into the Feb. 14 killing of Rafik Al-Hariri cast suspicion on senior Syrian officials and suggested the assassination was planned by top security officials in Damascus and their Lebanese allies. Syria has denied the accusations and called the Mehlis report politically motivated, saying Hosamâs testimony was the main source implicating Syrians. âThere is no main witness. There is a witness who might give information to the (investigation) commission. What Hosam said in Syria is different to what he told us,â Mehlis said. He said his team would ask to question Hosam again because he was trying to hamper the investigation. Other newspapers gave a similar account of Mehlisâ briefing and an-Nahar newspaper said he expressed his astonishment as to how a Syrian committee also investigating Haririâs death had showed Hosam on television before questioning him. A Syrian official did not wish to comment on Mehlisâ remarks but said Damascus has conveyed to him the outcome of an investigation with Hosam in Damascus. âContrary to what has been published, Hosam was questioned in Syria and the minutes of the questioning were sent to Mr. Mehlis on Tuesday,â the official told Reuters. The German was also quoted as saying he might seek to question more Syrian officials after his team quiz five of them in Vienna next week, denying there was a deal with Damascus over whom he could summon. The city was a compromise after Syria balked at Mehlisâ request to question them in Lebanon. âEveryone we ask to question, we will question... Cooperation is either total or there is no cooperation,â he said. âIf the investigations result in a request for arrests, the commission would recommend their arrests and the Syrian authorities would have to do it.â His October report slammed Syria for failing to cooperate with the investigation. The UN Security Council, which authorized the probe, subsequently warned Syria to cooperate or face the prospect of further action. Mehlis is scheduled to submit his final report on Dec. 15. |
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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Mehlis says Hariri probe unharmed by Syria witness |
| 2005-12-01 |
| BEIRUT, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Chief U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis was quoted on Thursday as saying his investigation into the killing of a former Lebanese prime minister had not been undermined by a Syrian witness who recanted his testimony. German prosecutor Mehlis, quoted by a number of Lebanese and Arab newspapers, accused Syrian authorities of using the witness, Hosam Taher Hosam, as a Communist-like propaganda tool. Hosam appeared on Syrian television this week to accuse Lebanese officials of an elaborate scheme of threats, bribery and torture to induce him to testify falsely against Syria and said the inquiry's initial findings rested largely on his lies. "I'm used to this kind of propaganda," Mehlis was quoted by Beirut's as-Safir daily as saying. "I've spent 40 years in Germany and we used to see such things in former eastern European countries." Mehlis' interim report in October into the Feb. 14 killing of Rafik al-Hariri cast suspicion on senior Syrian officials and suggested the assassination was planned by top security officials in Damascus and their Lebanese allies. Syria has denied the accusations and called the Mehlis report politically motivated, saying Hosam's testimony was the main source implicating Syrians. "There is no main witness. There is a witness who might give information to the (investigation) commission. What Hosam said in Syria is different to what he told us," Mehlis said. He said his team would ask to question Hosam again because he was trying to hamper the investigation. Other newspapers gave a similar account of Mehlis' briefing. The German was also quoted as saying he might seek to question more Syrian officials after his team quiz five of them in Vienna next week, denying there was a deal with Damascus over whom he could summon. The city was a compromise after Syria balked at Mehlis' request to question them in Lebanon. "Everyone we ask to question, we will question... Cooperation is either total or there is no cooperation," he said. "If the investigations result in a request for arrests, the commission would recommend their arrests and the Syrian authorities would have to do it." His October report slammed Syria for failing to cooperate with the investigation. The U.N. Security Council, which authorised the probe, subsequently warned Syria to cooperate or face the prospect of further action. Mehlis is scheduled to submit his final report on Dec. 15. Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N. undersecretary-general for political affairs, said on Wednesday he expected the investigation to continue but that Mehlis may hand over the work to someone else. |
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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Syria wants UN report changed after witness recants |
| 2005-11-29 |
| Syrian officials demanded that a UN report implicating them over the February murder of five-time Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri be revised after state television broadcast the apparent recanting of a witness. Ibrahim Darraji, who heads Syria's own separate investigation into the killing, said the new testimony from Kurdish former intelligence agent Hassam Taher Hassam spelled the collapse of last month's findings by UN investigator Detlev Mehlis which prompted a Security Council resolution against Damascus. His attack on the commission came just a day before Mehlis's team was due to hold its first interviews with senior Syrian officials at UN offices in Vienna ending a prolonged wrangle over the venue for the long-awaited interrogations. "From a legal point of view, the Mehlis report has collapsed," Darraji told reporters at a joint news conference with the purported witness in Damascus. "It was based on the testimony of two key witnesses -- Mohammed Zuheir as-Sadiq who is now jailed in France and Mr Hassam," he said, standing alongside Hassam. "The ball is now in the Mehlis commission's court -- they based their findings on the statements of one person and he has now set the record straight." In the lengthy interview broadcast Sunday evening, Hassam told state television that he had testified against the brother and brother-in-law of President Bashar al-Assad only under duress. "Maher al-Assad and Assaf Shawkat were the main officials in their sights .. they asked me to speak out against them and I said that they were the ones who ordered the murder," he said. He said he regretted making what he described as the "entirely false" statements that he had given. The slain premier's son and heir, Saad, now leader of the largest bloc in the Lebanese parliament, had offered him around one million dollars, he added. Hariri dismissed the accusation out of hand, describing it as a "desperate attempt to derail the inquiry" of the United Nations into his father's murder. "Everything that this person has said is lies," said a statement released by his office in Beirut. A statement from the UN commission confirmed that Hassam had testified before it but added that he had volunteered his testimony and had even expressed fear about the repercussions from the Syrian authorities. "Hassam first approached the UN International Independent Investigation Commission at the end of June 2005 and identified himself as a former Syrian intelligence officer in Lebanon," the statement said. "In his witness statement signed and dated September 1, 2005, Mr Hassam stated: 'I am here voluntarily to give a statement to the UNIIIC. I have not been threatened or forced to come here, nor have I been offered any promises or incentives to do so. "'I understand that by giving knowingly false information in this witness statement I may commit a crime against the laws of the Republic of Lebanon,'" the statement quoted him as saying. The commission insisted it had "never offered or provided" any incentive for testimony and added that, according to Hassam's own statements, it was the Syrian authorities that he was afraid of. "On several occasions Mr Hassam expressed fear to UNIIIC that he and his family could be harmed by Syrian security elements," its statement said. The UN commission was due to question five senior Syrian officials in Vienna Tuesday following its interim findings implicating them in Hariri's murder. The deal followed mounting US-led pressure for progress in the inquiry ahead of a December 15 target date for its conclusion after last month's Security Council resolution demanding better cooperation from Damascus. |
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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran | ||
| Mehlis to meet Syrian official for venue talks | ||
| 2005-11-18 | ||
| BEIRUT - Detlev Mehlis, the head of the United Nations team probing the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, will meet a senior Syrian official in Spain to agree on a venue for questioning six Syrian suspects, a Syrian source confirmed Friday. Mehlis will meet Raid Daudi, legal counsellor at a branch of the Syrian Foreign Ministry in Barcelona, Spain, later Friday. According to the Syrian source contacted from Beirut, the two men are scheduled to examine a Syrian proposal to conduct an interrogation at the headquarters of a U.N. observer force in the Golan Heights. "Besides the U.N. headquarters, Syria is for holding the questioning in the German city of Cologne or in Turkey," the source said.
Mehlis reportedly wants to interview Syrian officials in the U.N. offices in Monteverde, east of Beirut, over Hariri's killing in a February 14 bomb blast. "The Syrian authorities are refusing Lebanon for certain security reasons," the source said.
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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| CIA/Mossad Assassinated Al-Hariri |
| 2005-11-08 |
| In a special session, the Syrian parliament discussed U.N. Chief Investigator Detlev Mehlis's report on the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Al-Hariri. The session was aired by Syrian TV on October 31, 2005. The following are excerpts. TO VIEW THIS CLIP, VISIT: http://memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=910. Syrian MP: "You should look for the murderers of Al-Hariri in Tel Aviv and Washington. You should look for the perpetrators of this crime and for those who stood to gain from it. "The Syrians will never forgive those who have made it their business to harm Syria." [...] Khalil Musa: "This report is political and politicized, and is far from being reasonable or just. The Mehlis report should have cleared Syria, if it had been professional and objective. "It is invalid for the following reasons: First, it lacks even a modicum of justice and reason. Second, it contains grave professional errors, as my colleagues, who are also lawyers, have mentioned. Third, it is based on witnesses known for their lack of credibility, and for their hostility towards Syria. Fourth, there is no evidence in support of this report. Fifth, the report refrains from accusing, or even mentioning, Israel, although it is the only one to benefit from Al-Hariri's murder." [...] Huneim Namar: "The greatest thing that the Americans and Israelis achieved from this Mehlis report is to divert attention away from any possible role played by the Israeli Mossad, the American CIA, or any other party who may have been responsible for this crime, as well as to direct the spotlight exclusively on Syria." [...] Hassan Taleb: "The Syrian masses stress their loyalty to the homeland, and to the leader, Bashar Al-Assad. They say, and I say on their behalf: My soul I will sacrifice for you, Syria, and I will give everything for you. I have planted my heart and all I have in its soil. May Allah protect Assad, you are my sword. You are the mighty leader. You are my eyes. They chanted your name, Bashar, and I say: I will sacrifice my eyes for you. " [...] Anwar 'Ubeid: "What is happening today is an indication that America and Bush are coveting this nation's resources. Syria is the only thorn to remain in the eye of Zionism and its collaborators. Hence, the Mehlis report is a clear attempt to pressure and harm Syria, the Syrian people, and their leaders. "We are all familiar with Lebanon and with the intrigues of its leaders. Collaboration flows in their veins, and treachery thrives in their midst. Today they repay Syria's loyalty to them with treachery. They repay the attempts to help them with an effort to destroy Syria, and to put pressure on us." [...] Syrian MP: "Syria in its entirety went [to battle] when some people wanted to attack it â the entire Syrian people, the young and the old, said: 'We will dig their graves with our bare hands.' "Today, too, we say: With our hands, with our fingernails, with our children and our elderly, with our women and with our youth, we will dig their graves, if they think of attacking the capital of the Umayyad. Thank you." |
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| âUN probe can question any official in Syriaâ | |||
| 2005-11-04 | |||
 BEIRUT - The UN commission investigating the murder of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri can question any Syrian official, Syriaâs deputy foreign minister said in an interview published on Thursday.Syria has given the UN probe the green light to interrogate âall people who have been or who will be cited in the (German head prosecutor) Detlev Mehlis reportâ, Walid Muallem told the pan-Arab daily Al Hayat.
âResolution 1636 is a fait accompli and we will work with the resolution as such, whatever our opinion of this resolution,â Muallem said. The resolution, adopted unanimously by a 15-0 vote, orders Syria to detain suspects and says the UN commission can âdetermine the location and modalities for interview of Syrian officials and individuals it deems relevant to the inquiry.â
âAs President Bashar Al Assad said, any Syrian who is proven to be involved must be tried.â
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| General spills the beans to Mehlis inquiry team | |||||||||
| 2005-10-31 | |||||||||
 BEIRUT: One of the four former security chiefs currently facing charges connected with the assassination of Rafik Hariri has started opening up to members of the international investigating committee, according to highly placed sources close to the inquiry. The general is said to be filling in many of the details of the involvement of Syrian intelligence officials and providing members of the United Nations team probing the murder of the former Lebanese Prime Minister with much new information.
 The UN team, under German magistrate Detlev Mehlis, presented a report to the Security Council, which is due to discuss a follow-up resolution Monday. The four arrested former Lebanese security chiefs are Major General Jamil Sayyed, of the Surete Generale, Major General Ali Hajj, of the Internal Security Forces, Mustapha Hamdan, of the Presidential Guards, and Raymond Azar, of military intelligence. They are all known to be close to President Emile Lahoud although the four are not noted for being particularly close to each other.
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| Assad forms committee on Hariri's murder | ||||
| 2005-10-30 | ||||
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| Hizbollah blasts UN, vows to stand by Syria |
| 2005-10-28 |
| BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrilla group said on Friday it would stand by Syria, blasting the United Nations for what it said was political incitement against Damascus over the killing of a Lebanese ex-premier. Tens of thousands of Lebanese attended an anti-Israel Hizbollah parade in Beirut's southern suburb in a show of force by the guerrilla group facing U.S.-led pressure to disarm in line with a 14-month-old U.N. resolution. "We say clearly that we stand by Syria, leadership and people, in the face of its targeting by the Americans and Zionists and attempts to punish it politically for standing by Lebanon and its resistance," Hizbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah told the rally. A U.N. inquiry led by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis named senior Syrian officials as suspects in the February assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. The report prompted the United States and France to put forward a draft resolution, set to be passed next week, at the Security Council demanding Syria cooperate fully with the probe and threatening economic sanctions. "What we are witnessing today is the using of the Mehlis report to punish Syria for a crime that it has not been convicted of as a punishment for its political and strategic options," Nasrallah said. The parade, an annual event to mark Jerusalem Day in support of Palestinians, was the first major gathering organized by the Shi'ite Muslim group since its backer and ally Syria pulled out its troops from Lebanon in April. It also came days after a U.N. envoy, Terje Roed-Larsen, said in a report the Lebanese government had not disarmed Hizbollah and Palestinian fighters in line with Security Council Resolution 1559, which calls for the disbanding of all militias. "We frankly feel that there is incitement⊠from more than one international report to sabotage the relations between the Lebanese themselves, the Lebanese and the Palestinians and Lebanon-Syria ties," Nasrallah said. |
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