Diplomats say that a UN team probing the assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri will make no new revelations in a report to be delivered to UN S-G Kofi Annan today, and will ask for another year to keep working. Syria, which widely believed to be responsible, has been cooperating in some respects according to Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz, who is in charge of the investigation.
Earlier reports from the team investigating Hariri's death have implicated Brig. Gen. Assaf Shawkat, Syria's military intelligence chief and the brother-in-law of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Four top Lebanese generals with loyalties to Syria who were key figures in Syria's domination of Lebanon have been arrested and charged with playing a role the killing.
Brammertz was expected to brief the Security Council on Wednesday, a day before his commission's mandate expires. The council will consider extending his mandate by six months, as it has done previously, or accede to the longer, one-year request. France will back his request for a yearlong extension, a French diplomat said, also on condition of anonymity. Annan also supports giving him the time he needs, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
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