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High-ranking Syrian and Lebanese officials have been implicated in the assassination of Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Investigators probing the killing uncovered evidence of a wide-ranging conspiracy to kill Mr. Hariri.
After an exhaustive four-month investigation, German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis concluded that several senior Lebanese and Syrian military and intelligence officials were involved in planning the Hariri assassination.
Mr. Mehlis presented his findings Thursday to the U.N. The 54-page report was also given to the Security Council, which meets next week to consider possible action against Syria.
In unusually strong language, the report concludes that the assassination was prepared over several months, and carried out by a group with extensive organization and considerable resources.
It points a clear finger at senior Syrian and pro-Syrian Lebanese officials, saying there is converging evidence of their involvement. In his summary, Mr. Mehlis wrote, "it would be difficult to envisage a scenario whereby such a complex assassination plot could have been carried out without their knowledge".
U.N. diplomats say France and the United States are working to build a consensus on the Security Council calling for tough action against Syria. Before he saw the final report Thursday, Washington's U.N. Ambassador John Bolton suggested negotiations are progressing rapidly. "We've been in consultations and discussions with a number of other countries about what the contingencies might be and what our reaction might be," he said.
In the conclusion of its report, the Mehlis investigation team urged Damascus to clarify the many still-unanswered questions about the assassination, noting that many leads point directly toward Syrian security officials.
Mr. Mehlis earlier named four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals as suspects, and questioned seven Syrian officials in his probe. One of them, Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kenaan, committed suicide last week.
The report recommends that the investigation continued by Lebanese authorities, and should examine possible links with other bomb attacks that have killed and wounded journalists and other Lebanese political figures.
Syria has repeatedly denied involvement in the Hariri assassination. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was quoted in a German newspaper as saying "we are 100 percent innocent".
Mr. Hariri's assassination in a bomb attack February 14 led to renewed calls for the withdrawal of all Syrian troops and intelligence agents from Lebanon. U.N. officials certified in April that the military pullout had been completed, but questions remain about the continuing presence of Syrian intelligence operatives.
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