Mehlis reaches agreement on interrogating Syrian officials

The UN has stressed that an agreement was reached with Syria that allows questioning five Syrian officials at the headquarters of the UN organization in Vienna to interrogate them about the murder of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri.

A spokeswoman for the UN said that the chairman of the committee Detlev Mehlis notified the UN secretary General Kofi Annan by telephone that he had finalized an agreement with the Syrian authorities on this issue.

This came a short time after Syria announced its consent on the demand set by the UN investigation committee to interrogate five Syrian officials suspected to have links into the assassination.

This surprising Syrian step came in a joint press conference the Syrian deputy foreign minister Walid al-Muaallim held together with the advisor at the Syrian foreign ministry Riad al-Dawoudi, following a meeting for the national progressive front, which includes several Syria parties, especially the ruling Syrian Baath party, in order to discuss the question of dealing with the UN investigation committee.