UN`s Mehlis seen close to giving up on Syrian cooperation in Hariri probe

[allemand]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/ShTickers.html

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Chief U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis is close to giving up on Syrian cooperation after Damascus insisted on a legal deal before allowing the quizzing of six officials, Lebanese political sources said on Friday.

Mehlis could notify the Security Council by early next week of a lack of Syrian cooperation in his inquiry into the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, paving the way for a showdown between the world body and Damascus, they said.

"It seems we are at a deadlock," a Lebanese political source closely following the investigation said. (...)

Syria rejected Lebanon as a venue and Mehlis, after turning down a Syrian offer for questioning them in the Golan Heights, proposed either Geneva or Vienna as venues.

More:
http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-11-25T123333Z_01_RID545189_RTRUKOC_0_US-LEBANON-SYRIA-UN.xml

According to other reports, however, it was Mehlis who insisted on Beirut and rejected the Syrian offer of "Geneva or Vienna as venues":

Syria proposes venues for Hariri probe interviews

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria has proposed Cairo, Vienna and Geneva as venues for U.N. investigators to question six Syrian officials in a probe into the killing of a former Lebanese prime minister, a Syrian official said on Saturday.
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=6233517&cKey=1131788132000

[allemand]

1. IDF intelligence chief Ze`evi: Mehlis report may lead to Assad`s ouster

IDF intelligence chief Ze`evi: Mehlis report may lead to Assad`s ouster (Israel Radio)
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/ShTickers.html

BTW, the Israeli intelligence site debka.com had a report about fighting between Marines and Syrian troops earlier, but they seem to have pulled it:

US Marines are locked in battle with Syrian troops after crossing the border from Iraq into Syria at a point west of al Qaim

November 25, 2005, 12:27 AM (GMT+02:00)

Both sides have suffered casualties. US soldiers crossed over after Damascus was given an ultimatum Thursday, Nov. 24, to hand over a group of senior commanders belonging to Abu Musab al Zarqawi’s al Qaeda force. According to US intelligence, the group had fled to Syria to escape an American attack in Mosul. Syrian border guards opened fire on the American force.
http://neveryetmelted.com/?p=148

[daleo]

2. Syria's position doesn't seem unreasonable to me

From reading the links. It seems like the UN rep is setting up a situation which will result in failure no matter what. Then, the U.S. will push for its unspecified consequences.

[bemildred]

3. It's almost like he's out to get Syria.

His "interim report" was rather bullshitty too.
But that would be crazy, right?
:crazy:

[daleo]

4. Yes, only tin-foil hat people think like that

:tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat:

[allemand]

5. Allegedly, a second key witness tried to sell his story for a lot of money

The Plot Thickens: Mehlis' Witness No. 1 Exposed?

New TV, a not-so-trustworthy Lebanese satellite channel, aired a tabloid-ish report during its evening news yesterday (Nov. 22) about a man it claims is the first ‘witness’ cited in the Mehlis report (…officially the ‘Report of the International Independent Commission Established Persuant to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1595,’ published on October 21, 2005, see points 96-102 as relates to this witness). Whereas doubts have been cast on the veracity of witness no. 2—a certain ‘Zuhir Ibn Mohamed Said Saddik’—the remaining certainty regarding Syrian culpability in Hariri’s murder hinges solely on the man who became known in media-jargon as ‘the masked witness’; now allegedly identified by New TV as ‘Hosam Taher Hosam.’ (...)

In its news story, New TV broadcast snippets of recorded conversations with Mr. Hosam, in which his account mirrors the information attributed to ‘witness no. 1’ by the Mehlis report, including the ‘expunged’ part identifying the role of Assef Shawkat. New TV claims that he shared most of this information before the Mehlis report was published.

Witness no. 1 and Mr. Hosam claim to be have been in too many critical places, and claim to have witnessed too many incriminating circumstances, to be true by my book. Maybe intelligence plots unfold neatly in Le Carre novels, but the ‘business’ is certainly far too clumsy and capricious in the real world. (...)

Furthermore, New TV suggests in a statement published on its website that Mr. Hosam offered to sell his story for a lot of money, and that he made this offer to them as well as to several other media outlets.

More:
http://talismangate.blogspot.com/2005/11/plot-thickens-mehlis-witness-no-1.html

[daleo]

6. Witness no. 1 sounds a bit "curve-ballish"

And we know that can be a bad sign. The Niger uranium forger was also supposed to be in it for the money.

I know curve-ballish isn't exactly elegant useage.

[allemand]

7. Syria agrees to allow UN probe to question its officials

By The Associated Press

DAMASCUS - Syria agreed Friday to allow UN investigators to question its officials over Rafik Hariri's assassination in Vienna, ending a deadlock with the United Nations that had brought mounting pressure on Damascus.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Walid Moallem told a news conference that the breakthrough in negotiations with the United Nations came after Syria received "reassurances" about respect for its sovereignty and "guarantees concerning the rights of the individuals" to be questioned. He did not elaborate.

A UN commission mandated by the Security Council is investigating the death of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was killed with 20 other people in a massive truck bombing in Beirut on Feb. 14. The commission, headed by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, issued an interim report last month that implicated Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services in the assassination.

"The (Syrian) leadership has decided to inform Mehlis that it accepts his suggestion, as a compromise, that the venue to listen to the five Syrian officials be the U.N. headquarters in Vienna," Moallem said.
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/650098.html