UN report calls for completing Hariri investigations

UN investigator Deltev Mehlis's report on the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri explained that the investigations are not complete, and there is a need to complete it by the Lebanese judiciary and the security authorities, and that there are still several items in the investigations that are in need of following up.

The report said that, therefore, Syria has now to "explain great deal of questions that were not solved" that faced the investigators.

Mehlis's committee said that the reached results so far indicate that the blowing up of the truck which killed Hariri and 20 others in one of Beirut's streets was carried out by a group that "has vast organization and great resources," noting that the assassination crime had been prepared for over several months.

Al-Jazeera satellite TV spoke of a list of telephone calls made by several persons prior to the Hariri assassination, including mentioning of the name of one suspect who is called Sheikh Ahmad Abdul Al. Al-Jazeera reported that Sheikh Abdul Al is an official in al-Ahbash charity society. A society which is known for its good relations with Syria. He explained that Sheikh Abdul Al was interrogated but was released later.

The report was handed over to the UN secretary general Kofi Annan on Thursday morning and Annan presented it to the UN Security Council and to the Lebanese government on Thursday evening.

In the first reaction to the report, the US abstained from commenting on what was reached by Mehlis who spent four months in the investigation about Hariri.

In a press statement, a spokesman for the US Department Of State said that the US administration wants first to read the UN report before it will take a decision concerning what the report concluded.

American officials said that the possibility of the UN taking measures against Syria will be discussed in consideration of what Washington considers a Syrian interference in the Lebanese affairs and support for the gunmen in Iraq.