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Last Updated: Feb 18th, 2008 - 14:39:01 |
(Middle East Online) UNITED NATIONS - UN chief investigator Detlev Mehlis said here Tuesday that the UN investigation of the murder of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri might take "another year or two" as Washington vowed not to let Damascus get away with obstructing the probe.
Briefing the Security Council on his latest findings regarding last February's Hariri murder, the German prosecutor noted that "after much hesitation and procrastination" Syrian authorities finally agreed to let his team interview five Syrian suspects in Vienna last week.
"This latest development is undoubtedly an important stage in the investigation," he noted.
However, he added that because of the slow pace of the Syrian cooperation, "the investigation might take another year or two." He stressed that under normal circumstances "it should be much faster."
"It was not clear at all times who from the Syrian side is the privileged interlocutor of the commission. This has caused confusion and delays," Mehlis said.
He said extensive interviews of the Syrian suspects in Vienna had to be assessed and new evidence be reviewed before leading to questioning of new witnesses or suspects.
Mehlis expressed hope that the interviews could be the "starting point" of greater Syrian government cooperation with the commission.
Asked to assess the level of Syrian cooperation, he told reporters: "We are not seeing full cooperation. Hopefully it will turn into full cooperation."
But Syria's UN envoy Fayssal Mekdad insisted that his country "has cooperated fully during the last period and reiterates its readiness to cooperate with the investigation during the upcoming period."
That view was not shared by US ambassador to the UN John Bolton, who said "Syrian cooperation has been grudging at best".
Bolton said that Damascus had failed to comply with a Security Council resolution last October 31 which warned Syria to fully cooperate with the UN probe or face possible sanctions.
"We are looking for ways to make sure that the international pressure on Syria is unrelenting," Bolton said.
"The Council's word is at stake now... For the Council's credibility to be preserved it has to ensure that the pressure and compliance continue," he said.
"On the part of United States there is absolutely no wavering from the proposition that Syria is not going to get away with obstructing this investigation, it's not going to cover up the actions of its senior officials and it's not going to escape the consequences."
To which Mekdad retorted: "Ambassador Bolton has always been wrong. He was saying that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and he was wrong... He is always wrong and this is my answer to his allegations."
France was meanwhile to circulate a draft resolution in the Security Council later Tuesday that would meet Lebanon's request to extend the mandate of the UN enquiry commission and broaden its mandate to include a look at other recent assassinations and bombings in Lebanon.
The Mehlis report, which cited fresh evidence of Syrian involvement in the Hariri murder, was delivered to the Security Council Monday only hours after a car bomb in Beirut killed prominent anti-Syrian lawmaker Gibran Tueni, the latest attack against a Damascus critic in Lebanon.
The Tueni killing prompted Lebanon to call for an international tribunal for the Hariri murder and for an international probe into a dozen bombings that targeted anti-Syrian critics over the past year.
In his report, Mehlis said two of the five Syrian suspects questioned in Vienna indicated that all Syrian intelligence documents concerning Lebanon had been burned.
The report also said that a statement by a new witness who has been assessed to be credible and whose information is deemed reliable "strengthens the evidence confirmed to date against the Lebanese officers in custody, as well as high-ranked Syrian officers."
Mehlis also told the council he would be leaving his post with regret as soon as a successor is appointed but would remain available to help whenever needed.
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