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UN to approve probe of Hariri killing
The Security Council is expected to approve a resolution authorizing an inquiry into the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, council diplomats say. The 15-nation council could adopt the measure unanimously after its drafters, the United States and France, fine-tuned its language to reassure Beirut that investigators would not impinge on its sovereignty, the diplomats said after closed-door talks on Wednesday. A U.N. fact-finding mission recommended the independent inquiry after concluding that Lebanon's probe into Hariri's February 14 assassination in a Beirut bombing suffered from "serious flaws" and could not reach a credible conclusion.
Syria is widely blamed by Lebanese opposition politicians for Hariri's death after he accused Damascus of meddling in Beirut's internal politics. Damascus has exerted virtually unchallenged control over Lebanon for three decades. But it promised U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen this week that it would withdraw its military and intelligence forces by April 30 in line with an earlier Security Council resolution adopted in September. Following the latest rewrite of the resolution approving an outside inquiry into Hariri's death, "there was broad agreement that it is a fair compromise," said Russian Ambassador Andrei Denisov, who earlier had objected to some provisions. "It talks about cooperation and working together with the Lebanese authorities," said Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya, saying Beijing, which objected to an earlier draft, would support the resolution. Five other council members had asked that the inquiry be limited to three months rather than the six months proposed by Paris and Washington. As a compromise, the new draft gave investigators three months to complete their work but said their mandate could be renewed for at most another three months. The size of the investigative staff would be up to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan but likely would total about 50, diplomats said. |
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