Syria denied on Wednesday accusations by Lebanese Defence Minister Elias al-Murr, once a staunch ally of Damascus, that Syria's former intelligence chief in Lebanon had threatened his life. Murr told the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation on Monday that Rustom Ghazali, intelligence chief at the time, had made verbal death threats long before the minister survived a bomb blast that targeted his motorcade in Beirut in July. Murr, speaking from Europe, said he had decided to stay abroad because he did not trust Lebanon's security agencies to protect him. "Murr is rushing to join the dominant chorus which is throwing accusations at Syria left and right," said al-Thawra newspaper, a government mouthpiece. Al-Thawra and two other state-owned newspapers quoted an official source as dismissing Murr's charges as "full of lies".
| "Lies! All lies!" |