BEIRUT - Lebanon will accept an international commission to investigate the assassination of former premier Rafiq Hariri if a decision to form such a panel is taken by the UN Security Council, Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hamoud said Saturday.
"Lebanon agrees to the creation of an international commission of inquiry if the Security Council takes such a decision to uncover the truth in the assassination of Rafiq Hariri," Hamoud told reporters.
He was speaking after meeting ambassadors and senior envoys from three permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Britain, China and Russia, to explain the Lebanese position.
Ministry sources said he would also meet this week with envoys from the other two permanent members, the United States and France.
"We want to cooperate with the United Nations, the Security Council and with the UN secretary general, and the ambassadors I met today have favorably received this willingness on the part of Lebanon, as we want the truth, the whole truth, on the assassination," Hamoud said.
A UN report issued Thursday was sharply critical of an investigation carried out by Lebanese security services into the February 14 attack on Hariri, determining that it "has neither the capacity nor the commitment to reach a satisfactory and credible conclusion."
It called instead for an independent international commission to take over the inquiry.
Mahmoud and other Lebanese officials dismissed the report on Friday but appeared to accept its recommendations on condition that the outside panel cooperate with the Lebanese government.
03/26/2005 13:10 GMT