Damascus (AsiaNews) Demonstrations are taking place today in Damascus as the Security Council in New York begins to vet the report prepared by Detlev Mehlis, head of the commission of enquiry into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
In an interview with Al-Arabiya TV, US President George W. Bush said today that he hoped a negotiated solution could be found to the current crisis that sees Syria stand accused of being directly involved in the February 14 bomb attack that killed Hariri and another 19 people. The President did not however rule the military option.
Meanwhile Damascus is still challenging the Mehlis report claiming that it is a response to Syria's attitude towards the Iraq crisis. Similarly, street demonstrations are underwaysome 20,000 people gathered today in the capital in Lakes Square waving banners protesting the silence of the international community over what they see is the defamation that is harming both Syria and Lebanon; many people are also holding large portraits of President Bashar al-Assad and his late father, Hafez al-Assad, and flags of Syria and Hizbollah, Lebanon's pro-Iranian Shiites armed party of God.
According to Syria's official SANA news agency, Christian, Muslim and Druze religious leaders, who took part in the demonstration, presented the Apostolic Nuncio in Syria, the French Ambassador and the representative of the United Nations with letters of protests against the conclusions reached by the commission of enquiry.
In a joint statement, archimandrite Paul, prior to the monastery of Sts Joachim and Anna in Damascus, and Imam Izzat Darkach expressed their disappointment in the international community, reiterating their negative views about the report, based, they claim, on false depositions by dishonest people, far from the evidence and reality.
They warn the report will have fatal consequences and damage both Syria and Lebanon. The two religious leaders called on the international community to assume its responsibilities and stand up to more powerful countries.
In Beirut, the Mehlis report has also come in for criticism from Amal, a Shiite party led by National Assembly Speaker Nabih Berri, and Hassan Nasrallha's Hizbollah. The two leaders met in the Hizbollah's headquarters on Monday and condemned the report's findings as "subjective, politicised, empty, far from revealing the truth about the Hariri assassination". In a press release they expressed their opposition to any attempt to impose sanctions against Syria.