Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday he would cooperate with a United Nations murder investigation which has already implicated his intelligence agencies but warned he would resist United States pressure against his regime.
In an unusually defiant speech, Assad denied that his government or any of its officials were involved in the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. He said Syria would work with UN investigators and ”play their game” but said cooperation would ”stop when Syria is going to be harmed”.
”Whatever we do, and no matter how much we cooperate, after a month, the result will be that we did not cooperate. We should appreciate this fact,” he said in a speech to an official audience at Damascus University.
His address was broadcast live on Syrian television and shown on specially mounted screens in the city centre.
”President Bashar will not be the president who will bow to anyone in this world,” he said.
The investigation was part of a broader American strategy to undermine his country and attack its ”national identity,” he said. ”We support international legitimacy but not at the expense of our national interests.”
UN investigators want to reinterview six Syrian intelligence officials in connection with the murder of Hariri on February 14 in a car bomb in Beirut. Among the six is thought to be Assef Shawkat, the head of military intelligence and Assad’s powerful brother-in-law. Detlev Mehlis, the German prosecutor leading the case, has until December 15 to present his final report to the UN security council.
French President Jacques Chirac said his government would support sanctions against Syria if it failed to cooperate.
Assad did not say precisely what cooperation he would offer the UN. Damascus has already delayed responding to the request to question the six intelligence officials. The regime is reluctant to let the men be taken out of the country for interrogation for fear they could be arrested.
The Syrian leader promised there would be reforms inside his country, but similar promises in the past have produced few changes. He told Syrians not to speak against their government, a veiled warning to dissidents and the political opposition still living inside the country. – Guardian Unlimited Â