Claim Syria helped assassinate Rafik Hariri a 'mistake' , says Lebanon PM

LEBANON’S PRIME minister, Saad Hariri, says he wrongly accused Syria of involvement in the assassination of his father, Rafik Hariri, a former premier and billionaire businessman.

“At some point, we made a mistake,” he told Saudi-owned Asharq Alawsat Arabic daily. “That was a political accusation, and that political accusation is finished.”

In a radical shift from his previous stand, he said he had been misled by false testimony.

Mr Hariri said a UN special tribunal should be left to discover and try the true culprits, adding that the Lebanese must reassess the February 2005 killing of his father and 22 others by a massive bomb. These accusations were levelled not only by the Hariri family and anti-Syrian Lebanese political parties but also by governments in Washington and Paris and by Detlev Mehlis, the German prosecutor who initially headed the UN team of investigators.

Damascus has always vehemently denied involvement in the killings. Senior Lebanese officers with close Syrian connections were arrested, imprisoned and released for lack of evidence.

Ever since France carved Lebanon out of Syria in 1920, the two neighbours have had a complicated and sometimes confrontational sibling relationship.

Following their emergence as independent states, Syria has often stabilised volatile situations. With US acquiescence, Syrian forces brought an end to Lebanon’s 15-year civil conflict.

Following the formation of a national unity government last year, the prime minister has paid five visits to the Syrian capital and signed 17 agreements. In July, Saudi king Abdullah, a close ally of Mr Hariri, and Syrian president Bashar al-Assad visited Beirut to calm tensions over reports that the UN tribunal could implicate in the assassination Hizbullah, which commands the loyalty of Lebanon’s Shias, its largest sect.