 Syria is prepared to launch its own probe into the murder of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq al-Hariri, a Foreign Ministry official has said, after Damascus rejected the UN's investigation as politically biased. "I will tell you that (UN chief investigator) Detlev Mehlis wants a special Syrian inquiry. We are ready to carry out this investigation," the Foreign Ministry's legal adviser Riad Daudi told Aljazeera on Tuesday.
| Want to bet they discover the Zionists did it? |
"But Mr Mehlis, who has never made this kind of request before, must tell us exactly what kind of inquiry he wants us to do," he said.
| "We've never done an inquiry before. We've always just taken people's word..." |
"We will examine with Mr Mehlis what kind of cooperation he wants during our next meeting ...
| What part of "full" cooperation don't you understand? |
"We don't have any problem with this as long as it is done in a manner that respects our sovereignty."
| "That means none of the head cheeses get investigated, okay?" |
| I recall Saddam had similar concerns about 'sovereignty' when Blixie was snooping about. Worked out well for him, too. |
Earlier, Mehlis invited Syria to launch its own investigation into the killing to deal with unanswered questions. The German prosecutor on Tuesday addressed the UN Security Council on his written report, released last Thursday, that found evidence of Syrian involvement in the 14 February killing of al-Hariri in Beirut. He had also faulted Damascus for a lack of cooperation with his commission.
| "Just saying you're cooperating doesn't mean you actually are. You have to show up." |
Mehlis said the extension of his commission's mandate until 15 December would provide another opportunity for Syria to "show greater and meaningful cooperation, and to provide any relevant substantial evidence on the assassination".
| Or to try and find some way to pin it on Zionists... |
"For this reason, the Syrian authorities may wish to carry out on their part their own investigation into the assassination of Mr Hariri in an open and transparent manner," Mehlis said. "This would enable the commission to fill in the gaps and to have a clearer picture about the organisers and perpetrators of the 14 February terrorist act," he added. |