With every passing hour it’s clear that Syria is just a tad short of being openly accused of having played some kind of a role — large or small — in the murder-by-homicide bomber of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a popular leader.
The United States recalled its ambassador to Syria yesterday, and both the UN and Lebanese governments have issued strong statements:
The U.N. Security Council approved a statement urging the Lebanese government “bring to justice the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of this heinous terrorist act.” Lebanon’s interior minister suggested a suicide bomber aided by “international parties” may have been behind it.
This isn’t the first time the UN has warned Syria: in September, France and the U.S. put foward a resolution passed by the Security Council asking Damascas to stop influencing Lebanese politics.
Meanwhile, a Syrian newspaper pointed to what it insisted is another suspect. You guessed right:
(The) government daily newspaper Tishrin spoke of Hariri’s murder as a “tragedy striking Lebanon and Syria” and referred to widespread fears in both countries that Lebanon could return to civil war. Tishrin also pointed the finger at Israel, technically still at war with Lebanon and Syria, without actually accusing the Jewish state of killing Hariri.
“Israel cannot be forgiven for the blood of Hariri, nor for the blood of the Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian people, because the country that commits murder in the streets of Damascus, Beirut, Tunis, Paris and Rome is fully capable, with the technological means it possesses, to commit the attack.
“Who profits” from the crime, the newspaper asked. “The losers are Lebanon, Syria and the Arab nation, while the big winner is Israel.”
Indeed, the Lebanon Daily Star notes that there have been fingers pointed at varying suspects and it underscores a grim reality in that part of the world:
The fact that within just hours of the murder five distinct parties were singled out as possible culprits – Israel, Syria, Lebanese regime partisans, mafia-style gangs, and anti-Saudi, anti-U.S. Islamist terrorists – also points to the wider dilemma that disfigures Lebanese and Arab political culture in general: the resort to murderous and destabilizing violence as a chronic option for those who vie for power, whether as respectable government officials, established local warlords, or freelance political thugs.
The paper raises questions about the Syria theory and points to the war in Iraq as part of the region’s culture of violence, then adds:”The reality now is that Hariri’s assassination, regardless of who did it, has vastly speeded up and intensified the efforts of Lebanese political forces that are demanding that Syria get its troops and political operatives out of Lebanon.”
UPDATE: The Washington Post has a world opinion roundup which puts it even more bluntly:
The facts about who was behind the assassination are scarce, but speculation is not. The chief suspect in the Mideast online media is Syria or its allies in Lebanon. Syria, which has 14,000 troops stationed in Lebanon, has vigorously denied the charge. In condemning the crime, senior officials quoted by the government-controlled Syria Times suggested “the Arabs’ enemies” killed Hariri and some Iranian commentators charged Israel’s foreign intelligence service, the Mossad, was involved.
Hariri’s allies in the Lebanese opposition wasted no time in making unusually direct accusations against Syria, according to the Daily Star. Lebanese security officials told the Beirut daily that initial indications pointed to a suicide bomber.
The day before he died, Hariri said he was not afraid of being assassinated, reports Rosana Bou Monsef of the Daily Star.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.