Lebanese top legislator defends Syria on Hariri assassination

Visiting Lebanese House Speaker Nabih Berri said here on Monday that the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri should not be used as an " excuse for isolating Syria or bringing the downfall of the Syrian regime," the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported.

The threat of imposing international sanctions on Syria in connection with Hariri's murder "has nothing to do with finding the truth behind Hariri's murder," the speaker was quoted as saying.

Berri said Lebanon has nothing to gain from the probe into Hariri's killing, and "the country that stands to lose most from the assassination, after Lebanon, is Syria."

He added that sanctions on Syria was a result of its refusal to compromise with Israel and of Damascus' continuous support for the Lebanese resistance movement.

The speaker said the pressure on Syria has started before Hariri was assassinated and even before UN Security Council Resolution 1559 which called for a Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon and for disarming armed militia in Lebanon.

Berri described the report into the murder, submitted by chief UN investigator Detlev Mehlis in mid-October, as inconsequential, adding that such a report was not fit as a foundation for any political stand.

Source: Xinhua