January 6, 2006

THE UN COMMISSION INVESTIGATING THE ASSASSINATION OF RAFIQ AL-HARIR ASKS TO INTERVIEW PRESIDENT AL- ASSAD, AL-SHARAA AND KHADDAM. SAAD AL-HARIRI RESPONDS TO THE LEBANESE PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT ON KHADDAM'S INTERVIEW. KHADDAM SPEAKS ABOUT THE DETAILS OF THE SYRIAN POLICY IN LEBANON. SINIORA: DIALOGUE IS A FUNDAMENTAL METHOD OF TACKLING VARIOUS QUESTIONS PERMANENTLY AND IN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE CONSTITUTIONS AND LAWS. The UN commission investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri has asked to interview Syrian President Bashar Assad and Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa, the commission's spokesperson said. "The commission will also seek to interview (former Syrian Vice-President) Abdul-Halim Khaddam as soon as possible," spokeswoman Nasra Hassan said, referring to the man who alleged in TV interview broadcast that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad had threatened former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri several months before he was assassinated in a Feb. 14 truck bombing. The commission, whose mandate was recently renewed by the U.N. Security Council for another six months, has reported that several people whom Hariri spoke to after he met Al-Assad in August 2004 said the Syrian leader had threatened the Lebanese prime minister over the issue of Syrian plans to extend the term of Lebanon's president. Syrian officials, such as Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa, have denied any threat was made. Abdul Halim Khaddam was the first former senior member of the Syrian government to confirm the threat. Hassan said that Khaddam's remarks in the TV interview "corroborated the information we had from other sources and which were contained in the commission's two reports." "The U.N. commission had already sent a request to interview Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and Foreign Minister Farouk Al-Sharaa, among others," Hassan told The Associated Press. "The commission is waiting for a response from the Syrians," Hassan added. She refused to say when the request to interview Al-Assad was made. There was no immediate Syrian government comment on the U.N. commission's request. In two interim reports published late last year, the commission accused top Syrian and Lebanese intelligence officials of being involved in the killing of Hariri. In an interview with the media, the outgoing commission chairman, Detlev Mehlis, has said he was confident that the Syrian "authorities" were behind the assassination. Syria has repeatedly denied the charge and has tried to discredit those who testified to the commission. The assassination of Al-Hariri, in a blast that killed 20 other people in central Beirut, was a turning point in modern Lebanese history. As he was seen as a quiet opponent of Syrian influence in Lebanon, his killing provoked mass demonstrations against Syria. Combined with international pressure on Syria, these protests forced Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in April, ending a 29-year military presence in the country. No official response from the government in Damascus was issued, but Munair Ghanim, head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Syrian Parliament, said that the Syrian officials were hearing the UN demand from the media. "Unfortunately, we still receive the decisions of the international committee probing Hariri's assassination through the media," Ghanim said. "This harms the secrecy and the procedures of the investigation." "When it is officially directed to the Syrian government, the decision will be studied by jurists at the Syrian Foreign Ministry," he added. The Syrian government said it would put Khaddam on trial for high treason and investigate him for corruption. "The Council of Ministers will take the necessary measures to try Khaddam for high treason, and to open an inquiry into corruption in a series of matters which will include seizing his assets," the official daily newspaper, Ath-Thawra, said. The newspaper said the government announcement meant it would follow up on demands made by MPs who called for Khaddam to be tried for treason and corruption. Ath-Thawra also quoted ordinary Syrians as saying "punishing him is a national duty," and calling Khaddam "a traitor who sold his conscience for a fistful of dollars." The ruling Baath party expelled the former vice president for comments it described as "slander which violates the principles of the nation." Parliamentary Speaker Mahmud Al-Abrash called for Khaddam to be brought to trial as quickly as possible, in a letter addressed to Justice Minister Mohammed Ghafri. The UN investigation into Hariri's murder has indirectly implicated Syrian officials in the murder through two separate interim reports, the last of which was presented in mid-December. The probe's former chief investigator, Detlev Mehlis, said after the presentation of his second report that he believed " Syria stood behind the assassination". Damascus has denied any involvement in the Feb. 14 killing of Hariri. In his first report presented to the UN Security Council last November, Mehlis said several sources claimed that Hariri had been terrorized by Bashar Al-Assad during a meeting, where the president threatened Hariri that he would "break Lebanon over his head" if he did not support the extension of Lebanese President Emile Lahoud's mandate. However, Mehlis' report added that the same meeting was described differently by Syrian officials, including Sharaa, who stressed that Bashar remained "courteous and respectful" of Hariri. Speaking to the pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Arabiya in his first interview since he left Syria several months ago, Khaddam said Hariri was subjected to 'many threats' from Syria, and was once summoned to Damascus where he was spoken to by Al-Assad with 'very harsh words.' Khaddam also accused president Emile Lahoud and former Security General Jamil Assayed of inciting hatred against slain Hariri. Head of the Progressive Socialist Party MP Walid Jumblatt was among the first to react to Former Syrian vice president Abdel Halim Khaddam's statements on Al Arabiya channel. Jumblatt stressed that Khaddam's testimony falsified all of the Syrian regime's claims regarding false witnesses. Jumblatt added that Khaddam's testimony was proof of the credibility of the UN probe and its committee. Jumblatt, however, warned that the Syrian regime would now become fiercer. President Emile Lahoud commented on former Syrian Vice president Abdul Halim Khaddam's allegations that Lahoud and the Lebanese security system had conducted a brutal campaign against Rafiq Hariri. In a presidential statement, Lahoud denied he had conspired to put Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad against Hariri. The statement said Khaddam's claims that Lahoud had pressured Hariri into rejecting the premiership in 1998 when the late president Hafez Al-Assad had recommended him, were fake. It said the president asked Hariri to consider the offer for a couple of days and get back to him. Lahoud said Hariri formed two cabinets in his term, which made a great deal of accomplishments and the two men had shared a positive and respectful relationship. Head of the Future Bloc MP Saad Hariri, in response to president Lahoud's statement, issued a scornful refutation accusing the president of transforming Baabda palace into a media office to serve him as defense. Hariri added that Lahoud had violated the constitution and extended his term against the people's will and did nothing but distort facts and conceal truths. Hariri's statement praised Khaddam's interview as a 'historic confession.' Head of the Future bloc in Parliament MP Saad Rafiq Hariri's press office issued a statement saying the Lebanese regret the back to back statements that have been issued by the Presidency on behalf of a "regional party" against former Syrian Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam, who made a "historic" statement in the interest of Lebanon and the truth behind former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri's assassination. The statement, which was referring to Mr. Khaddam's recent interview with Al-Arabiya television station from Paris, said the Lebanese regret the fact that their President engrosses the Presidency in matters that only harm its credibility. The statement added, it is not surprising that the President who began his tenure by violating clause 53 of the Constitution, and whose mandate was extended contrary to the Constitution, ends his tenure by fabricating historic and constitutional accounts linked to martyred Prime Minister Hariri. MP Hariri's press office reminded President Emile Lahoud that the murdered leader had refused to form the first government under the head of state's "dismal" mandate because he did not want to participate in constitutional manipulation that aimed at weakening the post of Prime Minister. It stressed that history will reveal the lists of "provocateurs" in the February 14 assassination of the late leader. Just as history rendered justice to the murdered Premier's role, by account of the "resistance and its symbols," it will also acknowledge the role of the "historic" man who brought international recognition for the resistance, the statement said. It made clear that the legacy of the late Prime Minister does not need a clean bill of health from people, who had no role in protecting Lebanon's independence and liberating its territories, but only sought to protect their positions, even at the expense of the Constitution and the will of the Lebanese. That is how they reached their position in 1998 and how their mandate was extended in 2004, the statement added, and pointed out that these people continue to pursue the same practices that at a point turned Parliament into a tool of the security regime. MP Hariri's press office also urged those who are committed to the role of the Presidency to advice those in need of counsel, and to prevent the Presidency from joining a smear campaign that is underway at the Syrian Parliament. Meantime Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadé refuted point by point the arguments of the presidential statement, which came in response to Abdul Halim Khaddam's declarations. He said it was a tragic- comic to see that the presidency of the republic had been transformed into a third zone annex of the Syrian parliament. In a press statement, Hamade declared that everyone knew what drove Rafiq Hariri to stop the creation of the first cabinet under Lahoud's mandate, insisting that Lahoud had violated the constitution the first day after he read his sermon. Hamade also accused the president of having deformed truths in a desperate attempt to show himself as the sole defender of the resistance. Also commenting on president Emile Lahoud's reaction to Khaddam's statements, Future Bloc MP Walid Eido said unlike what the presidential statement stipulated, the relationship between Lahoud and slain Hariri was not positive and respectful, for the Fall of Paris 2, the accusation Hariri of implication in the cellular phone file, and the obstruction of foreign investments in Lebanon is all evidence that Lahoud had no amiability nor respect towards Hariri. Eido pitied the presidency and said it had become media spokesperson and a party to the conflict. He stressed that it had lost all legitimacy and received only visits of old deputies and ministers. Eido concluded that the presidency did not change the style it adopted under slain Hariri, but was launching the same vicious campaign against Saad Hariri, a replica of the campaigns used against Rafiq Hariri. Former Syrian Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam confirmed what all Lebanon's anti-Syrian leaders have been saying all along: that Assad did threaten Hariri during their last meeting in Damascus. In his interview with al Arabiya TV station he revealed the following: Assad told Hariri: "I will crush anyone who tries to oppose our decisions." The meeting took place a few months before the February 14 assassination of Hariri in a Beirut bomb blast for which a UN probe has implicated Syrian intelligence. The Syrian intelligence services could not have carried out such an operation without Assad being informed, he said, when asked if the head of state could have been unaware. "We must await the results of the investigation, but no Syrian security service could take such a decision unilaterally," he said. "This was a big operation with an apparatus behind it, not individuals. The investigation will reveal what that apparatus was. He had advised Hariri "to leave Lebanon months before the murder because his situation regarding Syria had become complicated" in the wake of the threat. "But, of course, at no time did it occur to me that Syria could assassinate Hariri." He blamed Rustom Ghazaleh for the tension in Lebanon prior to the murder of Hariri. "Rustom Ghazaleh behaved as if he had absolute power in Lebanon." He had failed to convince Assad to have Rustom Ghazaleh replaced. Lebanon's President Emile Lahoud and Jamil al-Sayyed, former head of the Surete Generale, had "incited" Assad against Hariri. "The campaigns launched by Lahoud and Sayyed were immense and Assad was greatly influenced by them," he added. He praised the Mehlis report, saying it was "professional and dealt with facts. What gave it a political nature was the list of names of those implicated," he added. Khaddam was quoted as saying: The murder was a "huge earthquake, whose consequences it will be difficult to contain." "It is the murder of a dream, of the hope and the peace of Lebanon," he said of Hariri, whom he called a "martyr". Khaddam, veteran aide to Syria's late President Hafez Al-Assad, stepped down in June, almost five months after the February 14 assassination of Hariri but it was only during the interview Friday that he formally announced his resignation. On Rustom Ghazaleh "When the Chief of the Intelligence apparatus in Lebanon (Rustom Ghazaleh) speaks with his guests while playing with his gun... a lot of threatening words were used against Hariri" during one of the occasions when he was summoned to Damascus (for the infamous August 2004 meeting). "I also told Assad that Ghazaleh embezzled $35 million from Al-Madina Bank and that he should be removed, to which Assad replied 'don't worry about Ghazaleh he is a thief.' "Why is Rustom Ghazaleh protected and we all know his vices? This is a question that the Syrians are asking," He added. Ghazaleh is one of several Syrian security officials who were interrogated in Vienna by UN investigators. On the threats that Assad made to Hariri "I heard about this meeting from three sources. I heard it from Ghazi Kenaan (former Syrian Interior Minister), President Bashar Al-Assad and the late Hariri," said Khaddam. "Hariri was on the receiving end of some very vicious words. I knew about that from [President Bashar Al-Assad], he told me of the conversation," he added "I told [Assad] you are talking to a prime minister in front of Ghazaleh ... How can you say such things in front of junior officers?" Khaddam continued. On the assassination of Hariri It was "stupid to blame an individual because this type of attack needs a lot of sophisticated technology, tons of explosives and planners who have a leader." This was in reference to Syria's claim that a Palestinian suicide bomber was responsible for assassination. On corruption in Syria "How can a security employee with a salary of 200 Syrian pounds ($4) die with a $4 billion fortune. How can an airline employee and his son end up with billions of dollars?" He did not give names but the only known former airline employee in the Syrian hierarchy is foreign minister Farouk Al-Sharaa. On why he left Syria That he had voluntarily left his homeland, adding that reports he had been threatened were "untrue up to now." Asked if he expects his life to be in danger in light of his remarks during the interview, he said: "I expect his [Assad's] entourage will mislead him." He claimed to have left his homeland on good terms with Assad. "There are differences in opinions but there was mutual respect," he said. Khaddam said he was "convinced that the reform process, whether political, economic or administrative, will not succeed" and that he preferred to choose "his motherland" over "the regime." Meanwhile, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora reaffirmed his commitment to realizing the return of the ministers who suspended their participation in the Cabinet. "We have not given up on bringing our colleagues back to the Cabinet through further talks and consultations," Siniora said. "We are going through a sensitive stage trying to solve the government impasse ... Dialogue is not a tune that we keep repeating; we must add to it hard work, determination and firm decisions to reach positive results." However, the premier stressed the need to grasp the economic opportunities in front of Lebanon while searching for the truth behind the assassination of former Premier Rafiq Hariri. Lebanon is determined to live in "freedom, democracy and build a strong state," said Premier Fouad Siniora, describing the Lebanese people as tired of "shifting positions, division in the country, uncertainty and fear." "We will not bargain with the blood of Rafiq Hariri, and the other martyrs of this country. We will not bargain with their blood. Hariri made the dream and vision of Lebanon a reality. He renewed the country and rebuilt it and sought also to build up mankind." The premier said. Siniora further said: "We can't live without freedom and without one great will, one common national goal for an independent state." He also said the country can no longer rely on the assistance of friends and fraternal countries "if we don't work to help ourselves." The premier considered the changes the country has experienced throughout the past year, "there are no more excuses for us not to help ourselves." Following the first ministerial meeting of the new years, Siniora said certain questions were in suspension adding that the government knew the reasons for the brood of some ministers. Siniora said the government's first reaction was to clarify its attachment to their presence in government and stressed that the government was equally attached to Lebanese wisdom, which he said backed consultations and dialogue. He said dialogue was a fundamental method of tackling various questions permanently and in the framework of the constitutions and laws. Siniora reiterated the need for deep administrative reforms. He stressed reforms were not invented by the Lebanese saying they were objective criterias that the whole world has adopted. The premier added that Lebanon was not allowed in the past 30 years by the war, Israeli invasion and occupation as well as Syrian presence to accomplish developments.