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Assad vows to punish any Syrian found involved in Hariri's murder
President Bashar al-Assad vowed Wednesday that Syria would punish as a traitor any national implicated in the murder of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri. Speaking in an interview with CNN, Assad denied suspicions that Syria was involved in the death of Hariri, saying his death was against Syria's interests.

Asked if any Syrians had played a role, Assad said: 'I don't think so. If that happened then this is treason.' He added that Syria would be prepared to see any eventual suspects hauled before a world court: 'They should be punished internationally or in Syria ... if they are not punished internationally they will be punished in Syria.'

Speaking in English to CNN's Christiane Amanpur in Damascus, ...
... so that he could say something entirely different in Arabic ...
... Assad strongly denied that he had played any personal role in the assassination. 'This is against our principles and my principle. I am a quiet person and i would never do such a thing,' Assad replied. He stressed that 'we do not have a system of assassinations in Syria.'

CNN's interview was done a few hours before Damascus announced that Syria's interior minister Ghazi Kenaan, Syria's intelligence chief in Lebanon from 1982 to 2003, had committed suicide. Kenaan's death comes just two weeks before a U.N. commission of inquiry into the Hariri assassination is due to release a report on its findings. Syria and its allies in Lebanon have been widely blamed as being behind the Hariri murder, something Damascus has strongly denied. Hariri's assassination last February caused an uproar in Lebanon which led to massive demonstrations which along with international pressure forced Syria to withdraw all its troops from its neighbour, thus ending a 30-year military presence in the country.
Posted by: Fred 2005-10-14
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=132160