Syrian minister says Hariri report 'not truth' [View All]

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Mahdi Dakhl-Allah, Syria's information minister, said today that a UN report implicating high-ranking Syrian officials in the assassination of Rafik al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, was politically motivated and untrue.

Dakhl-Allah said his country was being punished for its anti-US and anti-Israeli policies in the Palestinian and Iraqi conflicts. "It seems the report is a political statement directed towards Syria," he told Al Jazeera television, in the first comment by Syria on the findings. "The report is far from the truth. It was not professional and will not arrive at the truth but will be part of a deception and great tension in this region."

"Syria does not use the policy of assassinations towards its enemies or friends," he added. Hariri and 20 others were killed on February 14 by a bomb blast in Beirut that Detlev Mehlis, the UN chief investigator, said "could not have been taken without the approval of top-ranked Syrian security officials and could not have been further organised without the collusion of their counterparts in the Lebanese security forces".

The UN report said the Syrian authorities, after initially hesitating to help, had cooperated "to a limited degree". But several individuals had tried to mislead investigators "by giving false or inaccurate statements", it said. Accusing the UN investigators of relying on hearsay, Dakhl-Allah said: "The report and these accusations are dangerous and will have huge political impact. All these pressures are because of Syria's independent position towards issues, wars, occupation and chaos in this region. Now it is being punished for that position."

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