Syria Confirms It Received U.N. Request 
By the Associated Press
January 3, 2006
The New York Times
Original Source: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Lebanon-Syria.html

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- Syria confirmed Tuesday it had received a U.N. investigative panel's request to interview President Bashar Assad and his foreign minister about the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
A Syrian official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation, said the Foreign Ministry on Sunday received the request to interview Assad and Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa. The official would not say how Damascus planned to respond.
The assassination of Hariri on Feb. 14 in a blast that killed 20 other people in Beirut was a turning point in modern Lebanese history.
Hariri was an opponent of Syrian influence in Lebanon and his killing provoked mass demonstrations against Damascus and international pressure that forced Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in April, ending a 29-year military presence in the country. The United Nations then authorized a panel to investigate the assassination.
In two reports last year, the commission accused Syrian and Lebanese intelligence officials of being involved in Hariri's killing. The outgoing commission chairman, Detlev Mehlis, has said Syrian ''authorities'' were behind the assassination.
The request for the interview with Assad came after former Syrian Vice President Abdul-Halim Khaddam alleged last week that Assad had threatened Hariri several months before his assassination. An earlier request in July to interview Assad was refused.
John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. accused Syria of hampering the probe, and said it must start cooperating.
Syria's ''record to date has been one of obstructing the investigation, of tampering with the evidence and not making witnesses available in a timely fashion,'' Bolton said at the world body.
''The Security Council has made it clear that it expects full and unconditional compliance and said expressly in its resolutions that additional measures could be taken if need be,'' Bolton said. ''We're trying to get the government of Syria to cooperate as it's required to do. The ball is in their court.''
Khaddam, who left Syria several months ago, said Assad warned Hariri in August 2004 that he would ''crush whoever attempts to overturn our decision'' to extend the term of Lebanon's pro-Syrian president.
Syria's push for the three-year extension of Emile Lahoud's presidency in September 2004 -- which Hariri opposed -- was considered responsible for the crisis in Lebanese-Syrian relations that preceded Hariri's assassination.
In his TV interview last week from Paris, Khaddam said Syria's former intelligence chief in Lebanon, Rustom Ghazale insulted Hariri.
Ghazale on Tuesday denied accusations he had personally insulted and threatened Hariri before he was assassinated. He told Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera the accusation was part of an ''unjust and baseless campaign'' directed against Syria.
Ghazale, who is now intelligence chief for suburban Damascus, said he will not resign from his post unless asked by the Syrian leadership.