Lebanon and Syria yesterday slammed a UN report on the murder of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri as one-sided. Lebanon's president, Emile Lahoud, urged the United Nations to do whatever is needed to find out who killed Hariri after the hard-hitting UN report backed Lebanese opposition demands for an international probe. Lahoud made the appeal in a telephone conversation with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan hours before the release of the report that was sharply critical of Syrian and Lebanese authorities over the Feb. 14 bomb attack that killed Hariri.The UN fact-finding team said Lebanon's inquiry into the killing of Hariri was seriously flawed and an independent investigation is needed to "find the truth." In what could be the most damning piece of evidence, the team's report gave credence to alleged threats made at a meeting of "physical harm" by Syrian President Bashar Assad to Hariri prior to his Sept. 8 resignation as Lebanon's prime minister. The report cited numerous accounts of the meeting between the two based on Hariri's statements to others. They had met to discuss extending the term of President Lahoud, which Hariri and Druze opposition leader Walid Jumblatt opposed. Bashar was quoted as saying he "would rather break Lebanon over the heads of Hariri and Jumblatt than see his word in Lebanon broken." Syria's UN Ambassador Fayssal Mekdad said he was quite certain Bashar "did not threaten physical harm." He called the report "one-sided, full of rhetoric and devoid of proof."
"I was not there when President Assad talked to Mr. Hariri, and nobody else was there. I think nobody has the right to speak (about) such a meeting," Mekdad said. The fact-finding mission, led by Irish Deputy Police Commissioner Peter Fitzgerald, did not determine who was behind the attack but said Syrian military intelligence bore primary responsibility for a lack of security, protection and law and order and that Lebanese security forces showed systematic negligence. "It became clear to the mission that the Lebanese investigation process suffers from serious flaws and has neither the capacity nor the commitment to reach a satisfactory and credible conclusion," Fitzgerald wrote. The United States and France were expected to introduce a resolution in the UN Security Council calling for an international inquiry, council diplomats said.