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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Sophistication of Hajj's murder underscores Syria's role

2007-12-16

Wednesday's car bombing of Lebanese General Francois Hajj is being treated as something of a murder mystery because, unlike Lebanon's other recent assassination victims, the general was not an overt foe of Syria. Yet the method of his killing, along with the political benefits that accrue from his death, hardly rule out a Damascene hand. Hajj made a name for himself earlier this year by routing Fatah al-Islam, a Sunni terrorist group that had been hiding out in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared, up the coast from Beirut. This has led to speculation that Hajj was killed by that group to avenge its defeat. While that may be true, what's more significant is that Fatah al-Islam is widely suspected of being controlled and aided by Damascus. The sophistication of the bomb that killed Hajj -- a remote-control device similar to the one that killed anti-Syrian figures Gebran Tueni, Walid Eido and Antoine Ghanem -- underscores that suspicion. No less important is that in targeting Hajj, who had reportedly been tipped to become the next chief of staff, a message has been sent that the Lebanese military is now fair game. The current chief of staff, General Michel Suleiman, is the nominee to be Lebanon's President, and Damascus is ambivalent about his candidacy. Murdering Hajj is a signal to General Suleiman and other officers not to chart too independent a course from Syria. All this should alarm the Bush Administration, which was instrumental in evicting Syria from Lebanon in 2005. Instead, it has been helping to rehabilitate Bashar Assad's regime. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a point of meeting one-on-one with her Syrian counterpart at a regional meeting on Iraq in May. Syria's state-run news agency condemned the Hajj assassination via an unnamed government official, but the Syrians also condemned the murder with a remote-control bomb of Rafik Hariri in 2005. A U.N. probe into that murder has found overwhelming evidence of Syrian complicity. The difference this time is that State Department spokesman Sean McCormack praised Syria for its condemnation, calling it "positive if continued over time." Maybe Secretary Rice believes she can get the Syrians to play nice on Iraq and Israel while thwarting their ambitions in Lebanon. For their part, the Syrians tend to view such American entreaties as signs of weakness. On Tuesday, Syrian Vice President Farouq Sharaa remarked that "no one in Lebanon, even with foreign support, can win the battle against Syria." The next day Hajj was dead, which, if nothing else, was a perfect illustration of Mr. Sharaa's point.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

UN interviews Assad about alleged threats against Hariri

2006-04-26

A UN investigator on Tuesday interviewed Syrian President Bashar Assad about the assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister, an encounter the Syrian leader had previously twice declined. I'm surprised he didn't have to wash his hair this time... No details were released, but a spokesperson for the UN commission and the official Syrian Arab News Agency reported that chief investigator Serge Brammertz met Assad and Vice President Farouq Sharaa separately. "Okay, Farouq. You got your story straight?" "Right, boss!" "You know it's treason to tell a different story than what I tell?" "Right, boss!" The interview was a milestone in the commission's 10-month-old investigation into the truck bombing that killed Rafiq Hariri and 20 others in Beirut on February 14 last year. Assad refused two requests for an interview last year and the UN Security Council twice accused Syria of failing to cooperate with the commission. "Sorry. Can't do it. Sovreignty, y'know." The United States had warned Syria the Security Council would take action unless it cooperated fully with the commission, whose interim reports have said that Syrian and Lebanese intelligence agents were involved in Hariri's killing. "I got three words for Bashir: 1st Marine Division." Syria has repeatedly denied any role in the murder. "No, no! Certainly not!" The killing provoked an international outcry that ultimately forced Assad to withdraw the Syrian army from Lebanon in April 2005, ending nearly three decades of military dominance of the country. "G'bye! Write if you get work!" Brammertz is certain to have asked Assad about the accusation that he threatened Rafiq Hariri when he met the Lebanese prime minister in his office in August 2004. "So tell me, Mr. President, just between us: did you really threaten to have him bumped off?" According to testimony to the commission, Assad said he wanted the term of Lebanon's pro-Syrian president to be extended, a move that Hariri was known to oppose, and threatened to crush anybody who got in the way. "Y'hear that, Hariri? I'll crush you like a flea! I'm the president!" In media interviews, Assad has denied threatening Hariri and pointed out that Hariri later voted for the extension of President Emile Lahoud's term. "Neither me nor anybody else in Syria threatened him," Assad said in a recent TV interview. "We didn't have to. A few shots through his front window, blowing up his gardener, that was hint enough." Assad also suggested that Hariri may have lied about the threat to deflect criticism for deciding to vote for the extension. "Yeah, sure! He used to lie all the time! Look at all the other times he lied about us!" Vice-President Sharaa, whom Brammertz also interviewed, was foreign minister at the time of the assassination. An interim report last October accused him of lying to the commission in a letter about Hariri's meeting with Assad. "... and you swear the statements you have made are true to the best of your knowledge?" "Ngrk." "Sorry. I can't understand you. Are those your lips by the spittoon?" The Syrian government announced the interviews only after Brammertz had returned to his base in Beirut from his six-hour trip to Damascus in a convoy of 10 bulletproof vehicles. Good idea. Brammertz might be a Belgian, but he's not a stoopid Belgian. Brammertz had said in March that Assad had agreed to meet him. Assad had said he expected a "meeting, not an interrogation." "That means you can't ask me no questions!" "Why?" "Sorry. That's a question. I don't have to answer it." "So why the hell bother with a 'meeting'?" "See? You did it again! A question!" Many Lebanese blame Syria for Hariri's assassination and for a series of mysterious bombings that have targeted Lebanese politicians and journalists opposed to Syria during the past 14 months. Syria denies involvement in all the attacks. "Wudn't us." Four top Lebanese generals — key figures in Syria's domination of Lebanon — have been arrested and charged with playing a role in Hariri's killing. Assad has told reporters that if any Syrian officials are convicted of involvement in the assassination, they would be punished as "traitors."

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Syria, Lebanon welcome UN report on Hariri

2006-03-16

Syrian and Lebanese officials have welcomed the latest report by a UN commission investigating the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, calling it fair and cooperative. "The report was realistic and has a lot of professionalism," Fayssal Mekdad, the Syrian deputy foreign minister and a former ambassador to the United Nations, was quoted as saying in the government newspaper Thawra Wednesday. In Beirut, Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh also said the report was well-done, telling reporters that "we welcome the atmosphere of close cooperation reflected in the report between the commission and Lebanese authorities." The report, released Tuesday by the investigating commission's new chief Serge Brammertz, said there are encouraging signals from Syria, which earlier reports accused of not fully cooperating in the UN probe. The report noted that, after two high-level meetings, Syria agreed to a deal that will give the commission access to "individuals, sites and information." "This understanding will be tested in the upcoming months," Brammertz wrote. In a major sign of Syrian cooperation, the UN team was to meet with President Bashar Assad and Vice President Farouq Sharaa in the coming month as part of its investigation, according to Brammertz. The commission has asked to interview Assad, who is alleged to have threatened Hariri in a private meeting several months before his assassination. Assad, who has denied the claims, had earlier resisted interviews, implying in comments to newspapers that he rejected the team's requests on the grounds that he has international immunity. Earlier commission reports implicated several Syrian and allied Lebanese officials in the February 2005 bombing that killed Hariri and 20 others in Beirut. Those reports, Mekdad said, encouraged the news media to make premature judgements. "But the new one did not," he said.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Some perpetrators of Hariri killing likely had experience in terrorism — UN report

2006-03-15

A UN investigation is closer to understanding the circumstances surrounding former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri's assassination, and believes some of the perpetrators may have been involved in terrorism before, according to a report released Tuesday. Do tell? That comes as such a... ummm... what's the antonym for "surprise"? Chief investigator Serge Brammertz said his team would meet with Syria's President Bashar Assad and Vice President Farouq Sharaa in the coming month as part of its investigation into the February 14, 2005, explosion that killed Hariri and 22 other people. He said Syria had promised more cooperation but he would wait to see whether it delivered. The phrase "over their dead bodies" springs to mind, but I don't want to get too hopeful... Brammertz's team said the blast was so meticulously planned that it probably was not the work of an inexperienced group. One theory is that a truck bomb killed Hariri, though investigators are also examining whether the bomb was buried in the road and detonated as his car passed. "The individuals who perpetrated this crime appear to be very 'professional' in their approach," the report said. Y'mean they probably did something similar in the past? Reeeeeeeaally? Wowzers. Who'da thunkit? "It must be assumed that at least some of those involved were likely experienced in this type of terrorist activity." Brammertz did not disclose many details about the investigation in his first report since becoming chief of the commission investigating Hariri's death. The lack of information was a marked contrast to the details delivered by his predecessor, Detlev Mehlis, who publicly and exhaustively described his theories about the explosion. Brammertz did not repeat Mehlis' conclusions that the killing could not have happened without the knowledge of senior Syrian and Lebanese intelligence officials. It was not clear if he disagreed with Mehlis or just did not want to discuss those details because of the sensitivity of the probe.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Syria blames UN for failure to agree with Hariri probe

2005-11-25

Syria on Thursday criticised the chief UN investigator in the probe into the assassination of a prominent Lebanese politician for refusing its offers on where and how to question Syrian officials implicated in the murder. Foreign Minister Farouq Sharaa also demanded chief UN investigator Detlev Mehlis reach an agreement on the scope of Syria's cooperation with the inquiry. But really, they're cooperating with the investigation... The Syrian accusations and demands complicate the standoff with the United Nations, three weeks before the UN investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri is due to wrap up its work. Do tell? I think the intent is to keep arguing until Mehlis' deadline passes, then point out that the deadline is past and they don't have to do anything. I believe they're going through what social scientists call "groupthink," assuming they're thinking at all. The Security Council on October 31 warned Syria to cooperate with the investigation or face further action — a hint at possible sanctions. And eventually Marines in Damascus. Sharaa said Mehlis has turned down Damascus' offers to hold the questioning of six senior Syrian officials at the headquarters of UN peacekeepers in Syria's Golan Heights. Sharaa said the site would have been ideal, "but Mehlis rejected the venue and his rejection raised Syrian suspicions."

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Syria sets April 30 deadline for army and intelligence withdrawal

2005-04-04

Syria has commited to withdraw its remaining troops and intelligence units from Lebanon by April 30. The announcement was made by UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen following a meeting with Syrian President Assad and the country's foreign minister Farouq Sharaa in Damascus. Larsen said: "Foreign Minister Sharaa informed me that all Syrian troops, military assets and the intelligence apparatus will have been withdrawn fully and completely latest by April 30, 2005." He added: "The government of Syria has agreed with me that, subject to acceptance by the Lebanese authorities, a verification team will be dispatched in order to verify the full Syrian withdrawal."

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Syria-Lebanon

UN envoy says Assad ready to renew peace talks with Israel

2003-07-19

The UN Mideast envoy said Thursday that Syrian President Bashar Assad is ready to renew peace talks with Israel but dismissed as "totally incorrect" an Israeli newspaper report that the Syrian leader was ready to intervene in the case of four Israelis missing in Lebanon. Terje Roed-Larsen, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said he was making an exception to his rule of not commenting on meetings with government leaders to address the reports in the Maariv daily about his talks with Assad last week in Damascus. The paper reported that Assad expressed readiness to resume peace talks and made the offer to help resolve the case of the Israeli MIAs. "It is true that President Assad told me, as he also has done publicly thereafter, that there is an interest in Syria to go back to the negotiating table again, based on established terms of reference. The rest of what I read in an Israeli newspaper this morning is totally incorrect," Roed-Larsen said. Irrelevant at this point. The willingness to enter into talks again is significant, especially given the Boy President's belligerence a year ago. Unlike some other in the area, he appears to have done some thinking... The UN envoy said Assad was ready to go back to the negotiating table "on particular terms," but Israel's UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman said his government wants talks without any preconditions. Roed-Larsen said he will continue to work for peace between Israel and Syria but "to be a go-between between the two parties there has to be an agreement between those two parties that they want to go back to the table — and they have to agree how that is done." Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq Sharaa, speaking to reporters Tuesday, reiterated Syria's position that it wants to resume peace talks with the Jewish state at the point where they broke off three years ago.

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