The head of a UN murder inquiry is insisting on interviewing six Syrian officials in Lebanon, rebuffing a Syrian proposal for them to be questioned elsewhere, a Syrian Foreign Ministry official said yesterday. The official, who asked not to be named, said the ministryâs legal adviser Riad Al-Daoudi had met in the Lebanese capital last week with Detlev Mehlis, who is trying to find the killers of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. But the official said the German prosecutor had refused to discuss Syriaâs concerns about where its officials should be questioned and had ignored its counterproposals. âMehlis was rigid and did not pay any attention to the issues raised by Riad Al-Daoudi,â the official said. âDaoudi visited Beirut on an unofficial mission to touch base with Mehlis on the details of his request.âMehlisâ team wants to interview the Syrian officials, said by Lebanese political sources to include the brother-in-law of President Bashar Assad, at its headquarters near Beirut. Daoudi told Mehlis Syria felt this could cause internal problems in Lebanon and affect Syrian-Lebanese relations, the official said. Daoudi had also proposed that the UN team choose a venue in Damascus for the questioning, or hold it at Arab League headquarters in Cairo, he added. âMehlis refused to discuss this issue. None of the issues that (Daoudi) raised was agreed upon,â the official said.