Syria promises to offer any help to int'l tribunal on Hariri killing

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday that Syria would offer any help to international tribunal on the case of the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri when it does not involve the national sovereignty of Syria.

Assad made the remarks in a televised address to the newly elected People's Assembly (parliament).

Hariri was killed in a massive truck bomb in Beirut in February 2005, for which senior Syrian officials has been implicated by a UN probe.

Damascus, however, denied any role in the killing, but was forced to withdraw its troops from its smaller neighbor, ending a 29-year military presence there.

The National Progressive Front, a political coalition led by Syria's ruling al-Baath party won the majority of the 250-member People's Assembly in the elections held in April.

The front, which has won every election since its formation in 1973, took 172 seats, 5 more than the minimum quota of 167 seats reserved for it under the constitution, and the other 78 seats went to independents.

Source: Xinhua