04 April 2006
BEIRUT: A Syrian court has issued subpoenas for Druze leader MP Walid Jumblatt, Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamade and journalist Fares Khashan, Hamade said Monday. "There were warrants for questioning ordered by a Syrian penal tribunal ... against Walid Jumblatt, myself and journalist Fares Khashan," Hamade said, adding that he considered the warrants "a threat against our security, after everything that has happened."
"We will present these warrants to the international probe [investigating the murder of former Premier Rafik Hariri as new threats against Lebanese personalities are already being made," Hamade said.
Syria's military judiciary had filed a lawsuit against Jumblatt and "others revealed by the investigation" accusing the defendants of "inciting the U.S. administration to occupy Syria" and of "defaming" Damascus by blaming it for the series of bombings and assassinations in Lebanon last year.
Hamade also linked the subpoenas to the international probe into the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri, hinting they came shortly before an expected meeting between Syrian president Bashar Assad and the head of the probe team Serge Brammertz.
"It is worth noting that we received this a few days maybe before the international probe questions top Syrian officials in Damascus," Hamade said.
Jumblatt is one of the leaders of Lebanon's anti-Syrian parliament majority which has accused Syria of involvement in a series of bombings, including a failed attempt on Hamade's life and the murder of former premier Rafik Hariri in February 2005.
Meanwhile, a Syrian magazine called for a probe into the killings of dozens of Syrian workers in Lebanon since the February 2005 assassination Hariri.
According to economic weekly Al-Iqtissadiya, the international probe into the assassination should also investigate the deaths of the workers.
"We want the truth so that Syrian workers' killers are punished," the magazine said.
Thousands of Syrians worked in Lebanon before the Hariri murder but their numbers drastically dropped following the assassination, and the tension in ties between Beirut and its former powerbroker in Damascus.
The Syrian government says almost 40 of its workers have been killed in Lebanon since Hariri's death.
The magazine also called on Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora to punish the political leaders in Beirut who had made such accusations.
"To restore the special relations between the two countries ... all those who took part in the hysteria aimed at damaging Syria's image by accusing it of the Rafik Hariri assassination should be punished," it said.
Commenting on the magazine's allegations, Hamade said it aimed at hindering the work of Siniora, who is currently preparing for a trip to Syria to discuss a number of issues, mainly demarcating the borders and establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Sources close to Siniora said the Premier will not comment on the magazine's request.
"The premier is waiting for an answer from Syrian officials on when he will visit Damascus to discuss these issues," the sources said.
Nasri Khoury, head of a Lebanese-Syrian Higher Council, told reporters on Sunday that he had relayed to Damascus a proposal for the agenda of a visit by Siniora, but had not yet received a response.
But Syria's Information Minister Mohsen Bilal was quoted by Beirut newspapers as saying that "there is no hurry" for Siniora's visit, as "we need to study the agenda.
"The gate to Syria is the resistance ... as Syria will not open its doors to any party that is against the resistance," he told Syrian state television.
Al-Iqtissadiya also called for "Lebanese politicians who took advantage of the assassination ... to call for the overthrow of the (Syrian) regime to be sanctioned.
"There will never be normalization with the group of mercenaries in Lebanon so long as all the criminals are not brought to justice," the magazine continued, referring to the anti-Syrian majority in the Lebanese parliament. - With agencies
