U.N. Investigators Boost Pressure on Syria
A U.N. commission said Monday it had asked a second time to question Syria’s president about the assassination of a former Lebanese leader, turning up the pressure on Damascus after a former top government official said President Bashar Assad had issued a threat before the killing. The commission’s spokeswoman, Nasra Hassan, said it also wants to interview former Syrian Vice President Abdul-Halim Khaddam “as soon as possible.” Khaddam, a one-time stalwart of Syria’s ruling party, said in a television interview last week that Assad had threatened former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri several months before Hariri’s Feb. 14 truck-bomb assassination in Beirut. Full Story