Bolton asks for interrogating President al-Assad

The US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, said that the UN investigation committee to the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri should be allowed to interrogate every Syrian official in the course of its investigation, regardless to their rank.

Bolton stressed that this eventually includes the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad saying that nobody is above the law, as he had alleged.

He added that President al-Assad had dedicated time to talk to the mass media, and as he does so, he can allocate time to talk to UN investigator Detlev Mehlis.

Al-Jazeera satellite TV said that Mehlis who presides over the UN committee to the assassination of Hariri said he had sent a memorandum to the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad asking to meet with him in the course of the investigation, but the Syrian President rejected this request.

Mehlis said he has to be able to meet with any person the committee considers necessary to interrogate.

The United States, France and the United Kingdom have submitted to the U.N. Security Council a draft resolution requiring Syria to cooperate with the international commission investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.

Bolton told journalists, "It is a strong resolution. We feel it's important to send a strong and clear signal to the government of Syria that its obstruction of the Mehlis commission to date is unacceptable."

If passed, the resolution would require all states to freeze the assets and ban entry or transit through their territories of suspects named by the commission.

The draft resolution calls for sanctions against individuals the Mehlis commission has indicated as suspects, but does not call for sanctions against Syria.