Syria, Lebanon Reject Claims In UN Hariri Report

Site of the February blast in Beirut (AFP) 21 October 2005 -- Syria has described as politically motivated a UN report that links the country to the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.

In the report delivered to the UN Security Council yesterday, UN investigators say they found evidence that senior Syrian and Lebanese officials were involved in the February car bombing in Beirut that killed Hariri.

It was the first document to officially link Syria to Hariri's killing.

But Syrian Information Minister Mahdi Dakhi-Allah said today the report was politically motivated and untrue.

And the office of Lebanon's president, Emile Lahoud, rejected claims in the report that Lahoud had contact with a key suspect minutes before the car bombing.

(AFP/AP/Reuters)