Published: August 30, 2005
Op-Ed Contributor
Crossfire War: Middle East; Assad Cooperation Offer in U. N. Hariri Assasination
By Willard Payne 
Night Watch: Berlin - Denying reports of loud arguments between himself and Rafik Hariri, Lebanon’s former Prime Minister, Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad promised his country’s full support for a U. N. investigation into Hariri’s assassination in Beirut that took place February 14.
He promised to do so in an interview with the German news weekly Der Spiegel. The U. N. envoy investigating the assassination is German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, who met Syrian diplomats in Geneva on Friday and gave him a letter that answered his questions.
Assad said that during his last meeting with Hariri, the one with the reported loud arguments, "During this conversation we discussed an extension to Lebanese President Emile Lahoud’s term of office. It was clear Hariri did not agree. Then I told him we do not want to put any pressure on you. Go back to Lebanon and then tell us your decision. Some even said I threatened him. Others maintained a security official put a gun to his head. This is ridiculous."
Assad claims that a few days later Hariri agreed. "Why would Syria kill someone with whom there were no differences. That makes no sense. In actual fact we Syrians are the ones who have been the most disadvantaged by this affair."
If Hariri said he agreed with Damascus’s position it may have been just to tell them what they wanted to hear. That did not convince Tehran who also wanted Hariri to continue to work with the Islamic world and not with the West. Hariri had ceased cooperating with Damascus the previous October. The explosion summoned the French President Jacques Chirac to Beirut, acknowledging the loss of an important contact.
This site kept track of developments that led up to Iran having him removed. On Jan. 28 this site reported the third visit to Tehran by Lebanon’s Defense Minister Abdul Rahmin Morad in which he openly stated how Tehran and Beirut will cooperate in any crisis and their joint cooperation against Washington.
Two week later Harir is killed while Syria’s Prime Minister Mohammad Naji Otari is visiting Tehran, which says publicly how Tehran will work with Damascus through the crisis continuing their historical cooperation. All the German prosecutor has to do to find the ones responsible for Hariri’s death is trace the officials visits to Tehran. The Council of Guardians are influencing events in Lebanon as they are in Iraq.
Use the search engine on this site and look up any nation in the region and you will have access to a chronology of their cooperation, directed by Tehran. Of course in Israel’s case it will be a chronology of their military preparations to meet it.
Night Watch Information Service
http://www.crossfirewar.com
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