Damascus bracing for Hariri probe endgame, say analysts

The authorities are preparing for the anticipated outcome of the ongoing UN inquiry into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, say Damascus-based analysts. Chief UN investigator Serge Brammertz met with President Bashar al-Assad in the capital on Sunday, the BBC reported. The meeting was the first of its kind since last April’s UN Security Council resolution 1595 established an independent investigation into the assassination of Hariri, who died along with 22 others in a massive truck bomb in Beirut last February. Neither the official UN investigation spokesperson in Beirut nor the Syrian Foreign Affairs Ministry was available to comment on the meeting. A recent statement from the ruling Ba’ath Party, however, sought to distance the state from possible responsibility for the killing, in the case that any Syrian nationals are found to have been involved. “There was a statement by the Ba’ath Party recently that if a Syrian is found to be responsible for the assassination, he’ll be considered as an individual and not as the state,” explained Marwan Kabalan, a political analyst at the Damascus Strategic Studies Centre. “The charges brought against such a Syrian domestically will focus on negligence,” added Kabalan. “This is a change. For the past year, the official position has been to deny any responsibility.” In an interview with US television channel PBS on 23 March, al-Assad promised that, if any Syrians were found guilty of the crime, they would be considered traitors to Syria. “If there is anyone who is involved, he is going to be called a traitor… Such a traitor will be punished,” said al-Assad. “But there’s a difference between a traitor and the apparatus or government behind him.” Brammertz was also scheduled to meet Vice-President Farouk al-Shara, who was foreign minister at the time of the assassination. Both al-Assad and al-Shara had previously denied requests to meet Brammertz’s predecessor, German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis. The two men finally agreed to meetings with the Belgian investigator, however, after his 15 March report highlighted improved Syrian cooperation with the inquiry. Many ordinary Syrians, meanwhile, have grown impatient with the UN inquiry, with some hoping that an imminent conclusion will help ease strained relations with their Lebanese neighbours. “I want the UN investigation to finish so I can visit my aunt in Lebanon again,” said Salam al-Ali, a 27-year-old history teacher. “Some Lebanese have accused the Syrians of responsibility for the assassination, so we want to get to the truth. We want to tell the Lebanese – and all the world – that we’re not responsible.”