Reply #2: There are even better quotes:

[allemand]

"I will destroy anyone who tries to hinder our decisions," Assad told Hariri during a meeting in Damascus, Khaddam told Dubai-based television Al-Arabiya in an interview from Paris in which he also announced his resignation.
http://www.africasia.com/services/news/newsitem.php?area=mideast&item=051230201207.4as7zm3w.php

DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources note that Haddam insinuated in the interview that Assad had had pre-knowledge of the murder and could have prevented it.
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=1546

Syrian President Bashar Assad was dealt more bad news Friday night after former Syrian Vice President Abed al-Halil Hadem said that the embattled Syrian president "could have prevented the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1135696366457&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


Now, the interesting thing is that Richard Armitage personally warned Assad not to harm Hariri, according to an earlier report by The Times:

After the assassination attempt (on Marwan Hamade), Paris and Washington sent messages to Damascus warning the Syrians not to harm opposition leaders, specifically Mr Hariri and Mr Jumblatt. Richard Armitage, the US Deputy Secretary of State, reiterated that warning during a meeting with Mr Assad in Damascus on January 2.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,251-1530888_2,00.html

Are we to believe that Assad went on with the "plot" to kill Hariri, knowing that it had already been "uncovered" by the US and France? How reasonable is that?