accusing them of trying to frame Syria in the assassination case Hariri.
The Syrian letter asked UN chief Ban Ki-moon and President of the Security Council, US ambassador Susan Rice, to launch an official investigation into the case according to the pro-Syrian Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar.
The letter claims that Mehlis "fabricated, forged and created politicized information to hit at Syria and its reputation," according to the Al-Akhbar sources.
During a press conference Thursday U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon rejected the Syrian request : "This is not within my domain," Ban told reporters when asked to clarify the request by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem for him to investigate Mehlis and Lehmann.
Ban stressed that he had "full confidence" in Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare.
"He has been doing a great job, with a strong sense of integrity. This is what I believe he will continue to do," Ban said of Bellemare.
Mehis was the first UN chief investigator charged with probing the murder of Hariri who was assassinated on February 14, 2005 in downtown Beirut . Mehis concluded in his report that the assassination could not have taken place without the full knowledge of the Syrian leaders and their intelligence apparatus, specially because Lebanon at the time was occupied by Syria.
But last May a report by the German Der Spiegel report revealed that the vehicle used in the assassination of Hariri was owned by a Hezbollah official and that it was Hezbollah and not Syria that was behind Hariri’s murder .
According to a Lebanese legal observer who declined to be named for security reasons , “both Syria and Hezbollah could be involved in the assassination. There are many issues involved here he said : “Who ordered the assassination , who planned it, who financed it and who executed it? “ adding a “crime of this nature requires substantial logistical preparations” . The observer stressed that “ Syria needed Hezbollah for the logistical part and Hezbollah needed the Syrian security cover “
Commenting on the Syrian letter to the Security Council, during an interview with al Hayat newspaper , Judge Detlev Mehlis declared that he has “ full confidence in Special the International Tribunal for Lebanon”, stressing that what his” team and International Committee found and reported was based on evidence, which is included in the reports to the Security Council. “ Mehlis refused in the interview to get into the details of the Syrian, saying:” I understand the increase in their ( Syrian ) anxiety with the continuation of the investigation and the establishment of the International Tribunal.
Friday
4:03pm Kahwaji: The recent rocket fire incident is aimed at keeping the south an arena for exchange of messages , which we won’t allow it because it affects the interest of the nation and provides a free service to the enemy
4:00pm Army chief General Kahwaji met General Webster to discussed US aid .
4: 00 pm BBC US envoy George Mitchell's latest round of shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East has ended without agreement, Palestinian officials said.
3:52pm caretaker minister of Finance Chatah: The interest rates will be to declining and the level of public debt may fall to 151% of GDP after it reached more than 160%
3:00 pm NATO proposed a new era of cooperation with the United States and Russia on Friday, calling for joint work on missile defense systems after Washington scrapped a planned anti-missile system.
2:00 pm Russia will not deploy new missiles in the Kaliningrad enclave now that the United States has dropped plans to build an anti-missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, Russia's envoy to NATO said on Friday.
1:15pm Caretaker Foreign minister Fawzi Salloukh discussed current Lebanese affairs with Syrian ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali.
1;00pm Three Iranian opposition politicians have asked the International Monetary Fund to investigate the appearance of more than 11 billion British pounds (over $18 billion) in Turkey's treasury, alleging that the money was illegally taken out of Iran, the Guardian newspaper reported on Thursday.
12:20 pm An-Nahar : A senior U.S. official said: "Washington will not dispatch any senior official to Syria as long as Syrian behavior in Lebanon remains the same."
12:15pm PM-designate Hariri left for Saudi Arabia to spend the Eid el-Fitr holiday with his family.
12:05 pm A group of Iranian hard-liners have attacked Mohammad Khatamia, a reformist former Iranian president while he was marching with opposition supporters at an anti-government rally in Tehran. Witnesses said the attackers pushed the ex-President Khatami to the ground.
12:20 pm Dallas News: President Barack Obama's decision to abandon a Bush-era missile defense system in Europe and establish a partly ship-based shield against Iranian rockets could tighten U.S. pressure on the Islamic republic and ease a simmering rift with Russia.
12:00pm A suicide car-bomber killed at least 25 people in northwest Pakistan on Friday in an explosion on a road that brought down nearby shops, police and witnesses said.
11:42 MP Ali Khalil: We should work together to build a political front capable of facing the challenges threatening the region. It's in our interest and in that of the PM-designate to solve crises in Lebanon.
11:26 Caretaker PM Fouad Siniora met with Police Chief General Ashraf Rifi to discuss security situation.
11:25 MP Ahmed Fatfat told LBC: We're facing a governance crisis. There's a serious intention to change the regime in Lebanon and end sectarianism. There's no solution to the whole crisis in Lebanon.
11:12 PSP: speeding up the formation of the government prevents the exploitation of the political vacuum in the country and blocks the way for any attempt that is aimed at destabilizing and undermining the national unity
11:00 Iran opposition leader Mousavi had urged participation in the Quds Day rally as a show of strength after a three-month post-election crackdown.
10:49 caretaker minister Marouni: any government formulation based on the conditions set by the March 8, will hit a wall . The only possibility of forming a government is forming a Government of political leaders
10:24 Sujaan Qazzi : We are concerned that Hezbollah will obstruct Hariri’s task with the aim of having him replaced by someone else
10:00 As-Safir : PSP leader MP walid Jumblatt said forming a national-unity government should be the top priority adding “that the call for a national dialogue cannot replace the call for a cabinet that would be able to handle Lebanese affairs”
9:55 As-Safir : Jumblatt will be sending his foreign affairs officer, MP Dureid Yaghi, to represent him in the Jerusalem “Al-Quds” Day ceremony that Hezbollah is holding in Dahiyeh
09:54 Informed sources told al Rai : Syria is behind the refusal by the opposition to rename Hariri as PM designate
9:20 The Lebanese internal security arrested 62 wanted in various crimes
08:30 Speaker Nabih Berri and PM- designate Saad Hariri agreed to begin deliberations on cabinet formation starting next Thursday
8:25am Phalange party leader Amin Gemayel told VOL: Talks are now focused on the political issues in the country. President Suleiman and PM-designate Hariri should launch an initiative at the national level.
7:30am Former MP Mustafa Alloush told VOL: The 15-10-5 Cabinet formula is still valid. If the Opposition did not provide names, then the premier-designate will propose a technocrat government.
Thursday
8:15pm Parliamentary sources warned of troubles and riots beginning to show in Beirut districts.
5:30pm Michel Aoun after meeting PM-designate Hariri: We agreed on the necessity of calmness and keeping away from tension.
3:45pm PM-designate Hariri confirmed the necessity of Taef’s implementation and the dialogue with all parties without prior conditions.
3:43 pm PM-designate Saad Hariri meets with caretaker PM Fouad Siniora at his house
3:10pm Former PM Karame: The actual situation demands a speeding up in Cabinet lineup.
3:08pm Caretaker Minister of defense Elias Murr meets wit army chief Kahwaji to discuss the security situation
2::25pm MP Fatfat : A government of technocrats may have been difficult to form , but the government of national unity was much more difficult
2:10 pm Reuters : Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Thursday fraud claims in last month's presidential poll were exaggerated ,
2:05 pm Indonesia's most wanted Islamist militant, Noordin Mohammad Top, was killed in a police shoot-out in Central Java, police said on Thursday, lifting a major security threat ahead of a planned visit by US President Barack Obama
2:00pm Six Italian soldiers were killed and four seriously injured when a suicide bomber crashed a car into a military convoy in central Kabul in the worst attack against the country's forces
1 :42pm PM-designate Hariri did not make any statement after meeting with MP Michel Aoun in Rabiyeh.
