US calls for urgent UN meeting on Hariri assassination report News
US calls for urgent UN meeting on Hariri assassination report

[JURIST] President Bush Friday called [official statement] for the UN to convene an urgent meeting to consider what he characterized as the "deeply disturbing" findings of the Mehlis report [UN report; JURIST report] suggesting that the February assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri could not have taken place without Syrian involvement. US ambassador to the UN John Bolton meanwhile called on the international community to "demand cooperation from Syria" to uncover necessary facts [press release] about the murder. After it emerged that German investigator Detlev Mehlis had at the last minute deleted references from his report implicating two relatives of Syrian president Bashir Assad, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said [official statement] Friday that he had not made any attempt to influence the report's content. AP has more.