Mehlis held a press conference at his UN headquarters in Monteverde, East of Beirut and revealed the following:

- The 5 Syrian officials will be interviewed in Vienna, Austria starting Dec 5. They expect the interrogations will continue thru Dec 7.

- The UN will be able to question any witness that is required for the probe and did not give up on any of the individuals it needed to interrogate.

- The committee will start with a batch of 5 witnesses (even though they have asked for more than 6) and depending on outcome of the interrogations they will interview additional witnesses.

- Mehlis stressed that he did not strike any deal with the Syrians and confirmed that they have jointly put together a "flexible plan".

- Mehlis indicated the UN commission will not have the authority to detain any of the Syrian officers nor to request the Viennese authorities to do the same but he could request the Lebanese authorities to detain any individual as in the case of all the 4 Lebanese senior intelligence officers and the king witness 'Siddique'.

- Mehlis was utterly shocked to see Hussam T Hussam on TV. He was surprised that the Syrian investigation committee put Hussam on TV before interrogating him. This he said is "unprofessional and illegal". He classified the act as "poor Syrian propaganda".

- Mehlis did confirm that Hussam was the masked witness but not the main witness. Mehlis continued "Hussam provided us with important information. The committee did not have the impression that he was lying nor that he was a double agent".

- Mehlis emphasized that Hussam's appearance on TV and his revelations will not have any effect on the interrogations in Vienna.

- Mehlis will not be going to Vienna. His team of experts that are very familiar with the case, will be interrogating the Syrians. He will be supervising their work from Monteverde. Besides, Mehlis didn't want to create a security nightmare for the Austrians.

The authorities in Syria are not saying much but according to An Nahar newspaper the 5 officials will be accompanied by 5 Syrian lawyers in addition to Riad Daoudi, Legal advisor of the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. All the logistical arrangements for the 5 officials have been worked out between the Austrian and Syrian authorities and these will be strictly confidential. This includes departure and return, security arrangements, transportation and living quarters.

An Nahar also reported that General Hassan Turkmani, Minister of Defense, met all the 5 Syrian officers on Tuesday.

Ibrahim Gambari

Speaking at a press conference, Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari confirmed that the interviews at UN headquarters in Vienna starting on Dec. 5 will probably continue through Dec. 7.

Gambari also confirmed that Detlev Mehlis, the head of the commission investigating the Feb. 14 bombing that killed former Lebanon's Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 22 others, would not go to Vienna to interview the Syrian officials but send other investigators from his team instead.

Mehlis is scheduled to submit his final report to the UN Security Council, which authorized the probe, by Dec. 15. Syria may face sanctions if it fails to cooperate with the probe.

Gambari said that the Lebanese government or Mehlis or both could request a further extension after a previous extension into Dec. 15, according to the Security Council resolution. "It is very clear that he will need an extension," Gambari said. "There are people who are going to be interviewed on Dec. 5th, on the 7th. Mehlis is going to report on the 15th ... You have witnesses that have still not been interviewed, new ones, some physical evidence that (is) yet to be analyzed."

And so the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of the 5 Syrian officers was finally uncovered. Everyone was expecting the interrogations to start last Tuesday but when no one showed up the media started speculations and conspiracy theories started evolving.

Sources: Ya Libnan, UN, An Nahar