Damascus confirms receiving UN request to question al-Assad

A Syrian official source confirmed on Tuesday that Damascus has received a request from the UN investigation committee into the murder of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri to question to Syrian political figures. News reports quoted the source as saying that the request was delivered to Damascus last Sunday, but giving no more details.

On Monday, the spokeswoman for the UN investigation committee Nasrat Hassan said that the committee made a request to interrogate President Bashar al-Assad, foreign minister Farouk al-Sharaa, and former vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam.

This is, however, three days after Khaddam's defection from the Syrian regime and giving statements from Paris in which he accused al-Assad of having threatened Hariri repeatedly before his assassination in Beirut on February 14, 2005.