On the interrogation of President al-Assad

Syria has responded to the request of the UN committee into the murder of the Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri to interrogate President Bashar al-Assad and the foreign minister Farouq al-Sharaa.

The spokeswoman for the committee which takes Beirut as a headquarters, Nasrat Hassan, said that the committee received Syria's response by the weekend but she did not explain if al-Assad and al-Sharaa agreed to meet with the committee.

Prior to that, information rumored on Damascus's rejection of the request by the committee to meet with President al-Assad under the pretext that this request violates Syria's sovereignty. Besides, the Syrian president had said in press statements to the Egyptian weekly al-Osbo' to be published today that he enjoys immunity as a President of a Republic that authorizes him to refuse to be brought before UN investigators.

However, Syrian diplomats and politicians have not ruled out that Damascus will agree to the request of the UN committee pertinent to meeting with foreign minister Farouq al-Sharaa and other officials.

The short trip by al-Assad to Saudi Arabia and the Syrian response came after the meeting made by the former Syrian Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam with the UN investigation committee into the murder of Rafiq al-Hariri in Paris on Friday.