Damascus: The Syrians are preparing to hear the second report by Detlev Mehlis, head of the UN commission in the investigation of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafik Al Hariri's assassination.
The mood in Damascus today is relatively more relaxed than it was back in October when Mehlis issued his first report.
The only source of tension is the sharp devaluation of the Syrian Pound to the US dollar, which reached its lowest point in history on December 4, where 61.5 SP became the exchange rate for one US dollar. It has improved to 57 SP yesterday.
The Syrian media and government officials have been insisting for 10-months that Syria had nothing to do with the murder, claiming that it was carried out by some conflicting party in Lebanon or by Israel or some foreign power that wanted to use this case to incriminate and weaken Syria, in clear reference to the United States. The state run Radio Damascus commented on the second Mehlis Report yesterday saying that "Syria wants the report to acknowledge Syria's complete cooperation with the [UN] commission."
It added that Syria was worried because the commission "had not paid attention to the new realities imposed which are that several sections of the previous report were based on the testimony of Hussam Taher Hussam," a Syrian citizen who showed up in Damascus last November and said that he had given Mehlis false information on September 1, 2005, incriminating Syria, under orders and bribes from the Beirut parliamentarian Sa'ad Hariri.
New realities
Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Walid Al Mouallem, however, said that there is no intention to impose sanctions on Syria "unless some party wanted to punish us for cooperating in good faith with the investigation committee."
Speaking at a conference in Damascus he added, "If this happens then it will be unjust."
Authorities have been assuring the Syrians, in private discourse, that economic sanctions are on nobody's agenda for the time being. One reason is that the investigations are not finished and will be extended for another 6 months, although Mehlis is leaving his job in January 2006.
Another reason, authorities add, is that Mehlis does not have any concrete evidence to incriminate Syria or certain Syrian officials, pointing out that had he found anything substantial, he would have asked the Syrian government to arrest suspects, such as General Rustom Gazali, the former head of Syrian intelligence in Lebanon, after he interrogated him in Vienna last week.
For the time being, authorities are saying, Syria is safe.
This report will be slightly different from the first one, due to the withdrawal of Hussam's testimony.
The writer is a well-known writer and columnist
