Syria yesterday invited the head of the UN probe into the murder of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri to visit Damascus in the next days amid increasing pressure to improve cooperation with the inquiry. âThe Syrian government has formally invited Detlev Mehlis ... to come to Damascus Monday or Tuesday,â the Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, Faisal Mekdad, told the official SANA news agency. He reiterated that his government would cooperate fully with the UN commission of inquiry.Mehlis, the German prosecutor heading the UN probe, said last week that he was prepared to go to Syria to continue his investigations, even though he emphasized that no Syrian suspect has been identified. His commission wants to interrogate the former head of Syrian military intelligence in Syria, Rustom Ghazali, and two of his main colleagues in Beirut, Mohammed Makhluf and Jamaa Jamaa. Mehlis has called on Syria to resolve âproblemsâ over its cooperation in the inquiry so that he can obtain a full picture of the events surrounding Haririâs assassination. Hariri was killed Feb. 14 in a massive Beirut bomb blast that has been widely blamed on Syria and its political allies in Lebanon at the time, charges vehemently rejected by Damascus.
Asked about Syriaâs cooperation so far, Mehlis told a press conference: âThere were some problems but Iâm optimistic that these problems can be solved." Damascus has previously said its constitution forbids its officials being questioned by foreigners. âWe will have to further investigate and we do think more people were involved,â Mehlis said.