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| Standing in front of a piece of the Berlin
Wall, U.S. President George W. Bush speaks about Syria during a visit to
the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, October
21, 2005.(Reuters photo) | WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- US President
George W. Bush on Friday called for a United Nations meeting as soon as possible
to discuss a UN report implicating Syrian officials in the assassination of
former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The UN report is "deeply disturbing" and it "strongly
suggests that the politically motivated assassination could not have taken place
without Syrian involvement,'' Bush said in remarks at the Ronald Reagan
Presidential Library in California.
"The report points to a conspiracy
involving Syria ... It also concludes that there is probable cause to believe
that the decision to assassinate former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri could not
have been taken without the approval of top-ranked Syrian security officials,
and could not have been organized without the collusion of their counterparts in
the Lebanese security services," State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli
said at a briefing.
The UN report, released on Thursday evening, linked Syria with
the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and called on the
Syrian authorities to cooperate with investigators.
"There is converging evidence pointing at both
Lebanese and Syrian involvement in this terrorist act," said the report,
referring to the Feb. 14 deadly bomb attack in the Lebanese capital of Beirut,
which killed Hariri and 20 others.
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| Syrian Ambassador Imad Moustapha responds
to a U.N. report on Friday, Oct. 21, 2005 at the Syrian Embassy in
Washington.(AP photo)
| Syria has denied it has any
links to the killing of Hariri. Enditem |