Strasbourg, 18/01/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the EP, on the basis of the report by Jean Marie Cavada (ALDE, France), a Council regulation which will allow the freezing of funds and economic resources of a list of persons suspected of involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The regulation seeks to impose restrictive measures against designated persons suspected of involvement in the planning, sponsoring organising or perpetrating of his assassination. This is in line with measures taken by the United Nations Security Council, which, in October 2005 decided to launch an international independent investigation into the February 2005 bombing. The measures are similar to those imposed on persons and entities associated with Osama bin Laden, the Al-Qaeda network, the Taliban and for the mandate of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former-Yugoslavia. The last time the European Parliament adopted a similar consultation procedure was to freeze the assets of weapons dealers in Sudan and Congo in June 2005. In the present case, the list of persons and entities concerned (featuring in Annex 1 of the proposal) is blank at the moment, but is due to be to be established by the Council. Some MEPs, however, considered that it seemed contrary to the Treaty to submit for Parliamentary consultation a text with a blank annex. According to the Court, Parliament should have all the information necessary to be able to make a decision. MEPs, therefore, favour inserting the annex into the body of the regulation. As far as establishing and amending the list is concerned, MEPs have asked for preliminary information, on a confidential basis, from the appropriate Parliamentary committees.
Hariri's assassination is still causing a stir because the former Syrian Vice President Abdul-Halim Khaddam stated on 30 December 2005 that Syrian President Bashar el-Assad had threatened Hariri a few months before his death. Twelve people are presently being held in the enquiry by Belgian Judge Serge Brammertz on behalf of the United Nations, among whom are four Lebanese generals who were at the centre of the security system put in place by Damascus to ensure its control over Lebanon which ended at the end of April 2005. Authorities in Damascus have said they will not allow UN investigators to question President Bachar el-Assad or the Syrian foreign minister, Farouk Al-Shareh.