Syria will facilitate UN probe: Annan
UNITED NATIONS: Syrian officials have agreed to fully cooperate with the United Nations probe in to the murder of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said Thursday.
Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz arrived in Beirut Thursday to take over as head of the probe, replacing German magistrate Detlev Mehlis, whose mandate ended last week. Hariri was murdered in a February 2005 car bombing on the Beirut seafront that also killed 22 others. Syrian Foreign Minister Faruk Shara “called me two days ago to assure me that his government is going to cooperate and cooperate fully with the new prosecutor and they look forward to meeting with him as soon as practicable,” Annan told reporters.
“I urged them to cooperate fully without reservation and they did give me the assurance that they will,” he said. Asked whether Brammertz may question Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as Mehlis wanted, Annan simply responded: “I would want to leave him (Brammertz) to do his work.”
On January 11 Annan named Brammertz, 43, to head the probe, which is currently scheduled to end in mid-July. afp
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| Saturday, November 21, 2009
