Lebanese parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri revealed on Tuesday that he has evidence of Syrian assassination plots against himself and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. Hariri made the claim in response to a question about alleged assassination plots against the leaders by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law and head of intelligence Assef Shawqat. "We have intelligence about this and we are following it up," he told reporters. "The intelligence is correct and our security services are working on it. There is cooperation between Lebanese security services and Arab security services to avoid such assassinations," he said, without specifying which countries were helping in the investigations.Asked about Hariri's comments, an official at the Beirut office of the Western-backed Siniora said: "It is true and we have been informed about it."
Several anti-Syrian figures have been assassinated in Lebanon since Hariri's own father and former premier Rafiq was killed in a February 2005 bombing. An initial UN inquiry into that killing implicated Damascus and its allies in Lebanon, where four pro-Syrian security chiefs were arrested in late 2005. Syria has vehemently denied any involvement. Saad has been at the vanguard of Lebanese efforts to set up a UN-backed tribunal to judge those responsible for his father's death, saying earlier this month that "what is happening in Lebanon today is a destabilizing coup."