Syrian President Bashar Assad's brother and brother-in-law have agreed to be interrogated by the UN probe team into former Premier Rafik Hariri's murder "if requested," according to a Syrian diplomat. The Syrian Ambassador to Britain Sami Khiyami told BBC's Today radio program the inquiry had not previously sought to interview either Assad's brother and head of the Presidential Guards Maher Assad, or the president's brother-in-law and Chief of Syria's military intelligence Assef Shawkat. Both men were named as suspects by an undisclosed witness in the original draft of the report prepared by UN Chief Investigator Detlev Mehlis on the course of the investigations. Mehlis, who came back to Beirut late Monday night, said then that "the Syrian witnesses' answers were all standard," and lashed out at Syria for the lack of cooperation it showed."In our eyes there was full cooperation. However, if the commission had said at that time that it had suspects we would have acted differently," Khiyami said. He added: "It is clear for any person who has followed this issue throughout that Syria's co-operation was complete. I repeat: complete."
| Meaning that's all you're gonna get... |