UN sources to Haaretz: No sanctions on Syria for time being December 13, 2005 Haaretz Original Source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/656989.html United Nations sources have told Haaretz that for the present, the world body does not intend to place sanctions on Syria in the wake of the release of the UN probe into the assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister. The investigation has unearthed evidence that strengthens its suspicion of high-level Syrian and Lebanese involvement in the slaying, a report said Monday. The 25-page report accused Syria of trying to hinder the probe into Rafik Hariri's Feb. 14 slaying. The finding, released the same day that a leading anti-Syrian activist was killed in similar Beirut bombing, raises the threat of Security Council action against Damascus. The team led by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis said Syria had arrested and threatened relatives of one witness, Husam Taher Husam, shortly before he went public late last month to recant earlier testimony. Preliminary investigation leads to the conclusion that Mr. Husam is being manipulated by the Syrian authorities, the report said, adding that Syria's handling of Husam was an attempt to hinder the investigation internally and procedurally. In October, Mehlis' team had released findings that implicated top Syrian and Lebanese security officials in Hariri's slaying and said greater Syrian cooperation was needed. Syria denied involvement in the blast and accused Mehlis of bias. The Security Council then passed a resolution demanding that Syria cooperate fully and threatening unspecified further measures if it does not. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan delivered the report to the council Monday morning with a letter that said Mehlis' efforts to elicit Syrian cooperation have only recently begun to bear fruit. Mehlis said that in recent weeks his team had interviewed several more witnesses, collected thousands of pages of new documents and analyzed material and DNA from the scene of the blast. Investigators also interviewed five high-level Syrian officials in Vienna earlier this month. The report said his investigators had identified 19 suspects in Hariri's slaying, including the five Syrian officials interviewed in Vienna and one whose interview was postponed. The six were not named, but U.N. diplomats there said Rustum Ghazale, the last Syrian intelligence chief in Lebanon who was in charge when Hariri was assassinated, was among those interviewed. The suspects also include four prominent Lebanese generals, currently under arrest in Lebanon and a man under arrest in France. Tension in the region ratcheted up earlier Monday when another car bomb killed a prominent anti-Syrian journalist and lawmaker in Lebanon, Gibran Tueni. His http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/656842.html killingwas the latest in a string of assassinations of anti-Syrian figures in Lebanon, and many quickly accused Damascus in the slaying. Syria denied involvement in that blast as well. Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said he will ask the United Nations for a new inquiry into Tueni's slaying and previous bombings and to create an international tribunal to try suspects in the Hariri assassination. Annan released a statement saying he was shocked at the latest in a vicious campaign against Lebanese citizens, journalists, political leaders and their right to freedom of expression. The fallout Tueni's death will cause is not yet clear. Hariri's assassination set off huge anti-Syrian street protests in Lebanon and intense international pressure that forced Damascus to withdraw its troops from Lebanon a few months later, ending nearly three decades of military domination. While his previous report included an exhaustive discussion of evidence related to Hariri's slaying, this time Mehlis refused to discuss many specifics to protect witnesses. Yet he did mention several new findings. Mehlis said two of the witnesses interviewed in Vienna claimed all Syrian intelligence documents about Lebanon had been burned. The probe also confirmed that Syrian intelligence archives had no material whatsoever about Hariri's slaying. Mehlis said that a new witnesses had come forward in October 2005 with evidence pointing again to an organized operation to kill Hariri. The witness told of efforts by both Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services to recruit special agents for the job. The statement from the witness strengthens the evidence confirmed to date against the Lebanese officers in custody, as well as high-ranked Syrian officers, it said. Mehlis also requested that his probe, whose mandate expires Thursday, be extended by another six months because Syrian cooperation was slow and more leads needed to be pursued. He was expected to brief the council on his findings Tuesday, and has said he then wants to step down and return to his job as a leading prosecutor in Berlin.