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Hariri calls for Syria blast confessions inquiry
The head of Lebanon's ruling coalition Saed Hariri called on the Arab League Tuesday to investigate the alleged "confessions" of a terrorist group broadcast on Syrian state television that accused his Future movement of funding the group that carried out September's deadly car bombing in Damascus, local press reported.Y'don't suppose Saad's caught the same whiff of old flounder we have, do you? Hariri called on Secretary General Amr Moussa to form "an Arab committee that would investigate the confessions," according to a report in the Daily Star. Alleged members of the al-Qaeda linked Fatah al-Islam appeared to confess on Syrian TV last week to carrying out the car bombing that killed 17 people, mainly civilians, in the Syrian capital in September. They claimed that the explosives used were smuggled in from northern Lebanon, where the extremist group battled the Lebanese Army last year at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp. Wafa al-Abssi, the daughter of Fatah al-Islam leader Shakr al-Abssi, said that the group had received money from Saad Hariri's Future Movement, which is part of the March 14 coalition that leads Lebanon's anti-Syrian parliamentary majority and is heavily backed by the U.S. Hariri called the allegations "fabrications and lies" in a statement released shortly after the broadcast. In an interview with the Voice of Lebanon Tuesday MP Ahmad Fatfat also called for the confessions to be referred to the Arab League in hopes a "fact-finding mission" would "put an end to the exploitation of the Fatah al-Islam issue." Another Future MP, Hadi Hbeish, told Future TV Tuesday that the confessions were fabricated by the Syrian intelligence. During a visit to Syria Tuesday Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud said discussions about the televised confessions were on the agenda for his meeting with Syrian counterpart Bassam Abdul Majid. "We asked for more information and details and to look into the investigation and we will take necessary measures accordingly," said Barroud. He was in Syria to discuss security cooperation and finalize the formation of a joint Lebanese-Syrian committee. Posted by: Fred 2008-11-13 |
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