Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Jaafari ( picture right) also saw the current turmoil in Lebanon as a bid to urge the U.N. Security Council in not establishing the international tribunal to prosecute suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri.

More than 79 people were been killed over the past two days in ferocious gun-battles between the Lebanese army and militants from the shadowy Sunni group Fatah al-Islam, which has been accused of links to al-Qaida and Syrian intelligence services.

"Every time there is a meeting in the Security Council to deal with the Lebanese crisis, one or two days before the Council meets, there is some kind of trouble, either assassinations, or explosions or attempts to assassinate somebody," Jaafari told reporters in New York.

"This is not a coincidence...Some people are trying to influence the Security Council and to make pressure on the Council so they can go ahead with the adoption of the draft resolution on the tribunal," he added, without elaborating.

Last week, the United States, France and Britain put forward a draft resolution to set up the proposed tribunal after Lebanon's pro-Syrian opposition blocked parliamentary ratification of the court plan.

Hariri and 22 other people were killed in a massive bomb blast in February 2005, widely blamed on Syria, which was then forced to end nearly 30 years of military and political domination in Lebanon. Damascus has denied any role in the slaying.

On Fatah al-Islam, Jaafari denied any links with the group, recalling that most of the group's leaders had spent three to four years in Syrian jails for their links with al-Qaida.

He said the group's leaders were still sought by Syrian justice and would be arrested if they came back to Syria.

"They are fighting on behalf of al-Qaida. Their activities are related to terrorism," he added.

The Syrian envoy blamed the growing instability in the broader Middle East region to "the occupation of Iraq, the stalemate in the Israeli-Arab peace process since 2000 and the turmoil in Lebanon."

He also warned against a possible new conflict in the region, similar to the war between Israel and Hezbollah in south Lebanon last summer.

In this connection he said Israel was conducting its "biggest military maneuvers" in the Golan Heights since it seized the territory from Syria in the 1967 war.

Jaafari statement strongly points to Syria's involvement in turmoil and explosions

Jaafari's statement linking the violence to the UN vote on the Hariri tribunal is almost a confession of Syria's involvement in the violence and the explosions.
The anti - Syrian alliance in Lebanon has accused Syria of being behind the violence initiated by the Fatah el-Islam and the explosions in Beirut.

Syria has refused to cooperate with the UN over the International Tribunal and its allies in Lebanon have created humongous obstacles against the creation of this court...first by the resignation of the Hezbollah and Amal ministers from the government the night before debating the tribunal...followed by the sit-in protest to force the government out ...followed by the refusal of the pro-Syrian speaker Nabih Berri to convene the parliament to debate and approve the tribunal.

During a phone conversation about 10 days ago Assad has threatened UN secretary General that he will destroy the whole region from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean sea if the UN goes ahead with the Tribunal.

Sources: Naharnet, Ya Libnan