January 21, 2006

Syria's Assad says will not bow to pressure on U.N. probe

By Suleiman al-Khalidi

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Saturday a U.N. inquiry into the murder of a Lebanese ex-premier was determined to blame Syria regardless of the facts but vowed it would not bow to international pressure.

Speaking at the opening of an Arab lawyers' conference, Assad said that Damascus was still willing to cooperate with U.N. investigators but not at the expense of its national sovereignty.

Arab lawyers salute Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during an opening speech for the 22nd Arab Lawyers Union conference in Damascus January 21, 2006. (REUTERS/Khaled al-Hariri)

"They have created a condemnation committee, not an investigation committee," Assad told the conference, convened in Damascus under the headline "Defending Syria".

"They identified a perpetrator even before any accusation was made and from there they identified a single suspect, Syria, instead of several suspects, and then began searching for evidence to condemn Syria."

A U.N. inquiry has blamed Syrian security officials and their Lebanese allies for the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in Beirut last February.

Syria has repeatedly denied any role in the killing but promised full cooperation after a Security Council resolution passed in October demanded it cooperate with the investigation or face unspecified further action.

Damascus has allowed U.N. investigators to question several Syrian officials but has rejected a request to question Assad himself, threatening a new showdown with the Security Council.

Assad did not address the issue specifically but said Syria would not act against its own national interests.

"When we say the investigation is based on national sovereignty that means we have set a limit ... They propose limitless cooperation ... that we simply cooperate against our national interests," he said.

"For any patriotic person, national sovereignty comes higher, not Security Council resolutions nor anything else ... We must not concede the issue of national sovereignty. Even if the situation requires that we be prepared to fight for our country we must be prepared to do this."

INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE

Syria pulled its troops out of Lebanon in April, ending a 29-year military presence amid intense international pressure and Lebanese protests following the truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others and plunged the country into crisis.

Many Lebanese immediately blamed Syria for the murder of Hariri, who had fallen out of favour in Damascus, which had dominated its smaller neighbour's politics since the war.

Relations between the two countries have since sunk to all-time lows, with Assad assailing leading Lebanese politicians in another speech last year.

This time, Assad's tone was less hostile, though he blamed Lebanese officials for the failure of a Saudi Arabian initiative to defuse tensions between the two countries.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora rejected the Saudi proposal this week, complaining that it reflected Syrian wishes and fell short of Lebanon's aspirations for independence.

The United States accuses Syria of continuing to interfere in Lebanese affairs and supporting terrorism by backing Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas and Palestinian groups sworn to Israel's destruction.

Assad defended Arab rights to resist Israeli occupation and rejected international efforts to put pressure Syria, slamming two U.N. interim reports issued so far as full of holes.

"Anyone who accepts ... something to be above his national sovereignty in any country or place in the world, should swap his nationality and sacrifice it and take in its place an international one from the United Nations," he said.

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