Brussels, 07/12/2007 (Agence Europe) - The Belgian judge, Serge Brammertz, whom the UN has entrusted with the task of shedding light on the assassination, in February 2005, of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafiq Hariri, is to hand over his mandate at the end of December as president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), to Canadian prosecutor, Daniel Bellemare.. Earlier, speaking before the Security Council on Wednesday 5 December, he said he was absolutely satisfied with progress made to date. Major results have been obtained in main areas covered by the inquiry despite the many challenges facing the committee of inquiry, the judge said. He pointed out that it has been formally established that the possible reasons for the assassination are linked to Mr Hariri's political activities over the months preceding his death. This could implicitly involve Syria. All the more as it seems, according to Mr Brammertz, that the committee has confirmed the hypothesis that “operational links could exist” between those responsible for Mr Hariri's assassination and those responsible for the 18 other assassinations or attacks in Lebanon. He nonetheless said that cooperation has considerably improved with the Syrian authorities. A “common position” was reached in 2006 between the Commission and Syria which has allowed the investigators, according to the UN press service, to interrogate several Syrian officials, including top state officials, and to have access to archives. Mr Brammertz said the committee of inquiry was able to identify a number of persons that may have been involved in some aspects of preparing and carrying out the crime or may have had knowledge of it. (F.B.)