The UN has released its preliminary findings into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Hariri was a diehard (and now very dead) opponent of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon:

Building on the findings of the Commission and Lebanese investigations to date and on the basis of the material and documentary evidence collected, and the leads pursued until now, there is converging evidence pointing at both Lebanese and Syrian involvement in this terrorist act. It is a well known fact that Syrian Military Intelligence had a pervasive presence in Lebanon at the least until the withdrawal of the Syrian forces pursuant to resolution 1559. The former senior security officials of Lebanon were their appointees. Given the infiltration of Lebanese institutions and society by the Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services working in tandem, it would be difficult to envisage a scenario whereby such a complex assassination plot could have been carried out without their knowledge.

The “suicide” of Syria’s Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan last week did not help matters for the already isolated Assad regime. Strange that Kanaan conveniently died after talking with the UN team investigating Hariri’s murder and before the release of the official report:

But, given Mr Kanaan’s long and intimate connection with neighbouring Lebanon, many will regard his death as suspicious and will link it to the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February.