BEIRUT/ANKARA - Turkish Foreign Minister & Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said on Thursday that a serious investigation should be carried out about assassination of Rafik Hariri, former Prime Minister of Lebanon, and stressed, ''It is not right to blame any party already now.''
Replying to questions of reporters, Gul said Hariri was an important person of not only Lebanon but also the Arab world and the Middle East.
Gul said Hariri restructed Lebanon after civil war and helped the country to remain standing economically. He said Hariri attributed importance to cooperation between regional countries and Turkey.
Gul said they did not go to Beirut yesterday (Wednesday) as a state funeral did not take for Hariri, noting that, ''it was impossible to organize the funeral well, so we were not recommended to go.''
Gul said he paid a visit to family of Rafik Hariri today (Thursday) to offer his condolences.
FM Gul stated that Lebanon should get rid of its problems patiently and calmly and should not return to bad old days.
Stressing that Turkey would support the efforts exerted to investigate the incident, Gul said they recommended the investigations to be carried out seriously and healthily.
Asked recent developments like Hariri assassination and U.S.-Iranian tension were creating concern, Gul said although those issues were not related, they were disrupting tranquility of the region.
Gul said the region could make a very big economic development in case it could manage to provide stability.
Replying to a question about the NATO summit to be held in Brussels next week, Gul said participation of U.S. President George Bush to the summit was an indication of the importance he attributed to cooperation with Europe.