Syria welcomes UN report on Hariri assassination

Syria has welcomed the first report released by the chief of the UN commission the Belgian judge Serge Brammertz investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The report was realistic and has a lot of professionalism, Faisal Miqdad, the Syrian deputy foreign minister and a former ambassador to the United Nations, was quoted as saying in the government newspaper Al Thawra on Wednesday.

The report, released Tuesday by the UN investigating commissions new chief Serge Brammertz, said there are encouraging signals from Syria.

After two high-level meetings, Syria agreed to a deal that will give the commission access to individuals, sites and information, the report said.

This understanding will be tested in the upcoming months, Brammertz wrote.

The report did not repeat the accusations contained in earlier commission reports saying Syria was not fully cooperating and implicating Syrian and allied Lebanese officials in the February 2005 bombing in Beirut.

Those reports, Miqdad said, encouraged the news media to make premature judgments. But the new one did not, he said.

Brammertz, who took over the commission earlier this year, held talks with Foreign Minister Walid Muaallem in Syria last month.