SYRIA / LEBANON: UN investigators are expected to travel to Damascus on Monday to interview senior Syrian security officials in a new stage of their enquiry into the killing of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafik Hariri.
Investigators want to question the interior minister, Gen Ghazi Kanaan, who was chief of Syrian intelligence in Lebanon for 20 years, and his successor, Gen Rustom Ghazali. If the UN finds enough evidence to demand their arrests it would be a serious challenge to the Syrian government.
The murder inquiry has already led to the arrest of four powerful Lebanese security chiefs, who were regarded as Syrian proxies and who now face trial on charges of murder, attempted murder and carrying out a terrorist act.
Reports suggest that Detlev Mehlis, the prosecutor leading the UN inquiry, has received crucial evidence from a Syrian defector. Damascus denies playing any role in the killing.
It is almost unprecedented for an Arab government to arrest its own security officials and the detentions have isolated Lebanon's pro-Syrian president, Emile Lahoud. Government ministers are openly demanding his resignation. The UN inquiry, which is expected to run until late October, is hunting for those involved in the February 14th assassination of Mr Hariri.
Many Lebanese blamed Syria directly for the murder and their protests forced the withdrawal of the Syrian military, which had dominated Lebanese politics and security for nearly three decades. If officials in Damascus are accused, Syria's president Bashar al-Assad could find his government under intense pressure.
"It will destabilise the Syrian regime tremendously," said Michael Young, from the Daily Star, one of Lebanon's English-language newspapers.
"I think the Americans and French basically feel this is a chance to get rid of the Syrian regime."