Al-Assad will not represent Syria at the UN summit

A high ranking Syrian official said that the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will not attend the world summit at the United Nations which will be held on September 14 through 16 in New York, a summit that will deal with UN reforms.

The source which asked to be anonymous said that Damascus has not yet set the identity of the official who will preside over the Syrian delegation, but stressed that al-Assad will not be leading the delegation and that this decision will not affect Syria's "strong" interest in the issues listed on the summit's agenda.

Foreign diplomats had loomed al-Assad's attempt to make use of the summit in order to improve Syria's image which was hurt by Lebanese accusations of being involved in the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri

Damascus has recently approved to receive Detlev Mehlis, the lead UN investigator into the assassination of Hariri, after the UN complained of the lack of Syria's full cooperation in this regard.

Relations between Syria and the USA and several other European countries had worsened after the assassination of Hariri, despite Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon in April, ending 29 years of military presence there. Damascus has been also exposed to pressure from Washington which accused it also of facilitating the sneaking of foreign fighters to Iraq through its borders.