U.N. Asks to Meet Syrian Leader in Inquiry on Beirut Killing 
By Hassan M. Fattah
January 3, 2006
The New York Times
Original Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/03/international/middleeast/03lebanon.html

LONDON, Jan. 2 - A United Nations team investigating the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri has asked to interview the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and the foreign minister, Farouk al-Sharaa, in the inquiry into the killing. 
The request compounds pressure on the Syrian government just days after a stunning public attack on the president by his former vice president raised new questions about whether the government had been complicit in the assassination.
A spokesman for the United Nations investigation told The Associated Press on Monday that the commission had sent a request to interview Mr. Assad and Mr. Sharaa, among others, but would not specify when the request was made. It was not immediately clear whether the request had any connection to the allegation by former Vice President Abdul-Halim Khaddam on Friday that Mr. Assad threatened Mr. Hariri's life months before the assassination. 
Mr. Khaddam will also be interviewed, the official said. The commission also requested an interview with Mr. Assad over the summer as the investigation got under way, but was rebuffed.
This puts Bashar in a very embarrassing position because it means that he could actually become a suspect, said Joshua Landis, a historian at the University of Oklahoma and author of the Web site SyriaComment.com. It comes down to this: will he accept to be questioned, or will he face sanctions? If he refuses now, it will be hard for Bashar's defenders to vote against any sanctions in the Security Council.
The investigation of the truck bombing that killed Mr. Hariri and 20 others concluded, in a preliminary report last month, that the attack on Feb. 14 was the work of high-ranking Syrian and Lebanese intelligence officers. Syrian officials, including Mr. Assad, have repeatedly denied involvement and have recently gone on the offensive to discredit witnesses in the investigation and raise doubts about the validity of crucial evidence in the report. 
But the latest disclosure by Mr. Khaddam, who has been in Paris since he resigned in the summer, adds a surprising twist. In an hourlong interview shown Friday on the pan-Arab satellite news channel Al Arabiya, Mr. Khaddam, who became vice president in 1984, said that Mr. Assad had threatened Mr. Hariri and that no Syrian authority could have made the decision to kill Mr. Hariri on its own. 
The Syrian president warned Mr. Hariri in extremely harsh words not to interfere with Mr. Assad's plan to extend the term of his Lebanese ally, President Émile Lahoud, Mr. Khaddam said. He quoted the Syrian president as telling Mr. Hariri in 2004 that he would not allow a new president in Lebanon. I will crush whoever attempts to overturn our decision, he quoted Mr. Assad as saying.
But he stopped short of specifically accusing Mr. Assad of making or participating in the decision to assassinate Mr. Hariri. I have a lot to say, but Syria's interests require me to keep quiet for now, he added.
Mr. Landis said: This may seem like the smoking gun some were hoping would come up, and it certainly puts the fear of God into the Syrians. Here's somebody from within the intimate palace grounds, who actually knows what was going on, speaking.
In recent days, Syria's governing Baath Party has stripped Mr. Khaddam of membership and joined a unanimous vote in Parliament calling on the government to try him for high treason as a result of his accusations. Syrian news broadcasts have continued to show tirades by Syrians against Mr. Khaddam, accusing him of treason and chastising him for trying to harm the country.
Khaddam has joined the band of enemies who are targeting the country and its attitudes, the Baath Party said in a statement. The National Leadership has decided to dismiss Khaddam from the party and put him on trial.