Syria: Head of UN Hariri probe to interview Assad

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The chief UN investigator into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri visited Syria under heavy guard Tuesday to interview President Bashar Assad, who is alleged to have threatened the Lebanese leader months before he was killed. Senior Lebanese security officials said that Chief UN investigator Serge Brammertz traveled by land to Damascus in a heavily guarded convoy of bulletproof vehicles. Syrian officials had no immediate remark on the visit and a spokesperson for the UN investigation in Beirut also declined to comment. It would be the first time that Assad answered questions about Hariri's assassination from the UN commission that was appointed by the Security Council, which has accused Damascus of failing to cooperate fully with the probe into the February 2005 truck bombing that killed Hariri and 20 others on a Beirut street.