LEBANON: The Security Council has extended a UN investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, while a Belgian war crimes investigator emerged as the leading candidate to take over the inquiry.
The resolution adopted unanimously by the Security Council also authorises the UN investigative team to provide "technical assistance" to Lebanese authorities in their inquiry into other political killings since October of last year - including Monday's murder of publisher and politician Gebran Tueni. The Lebanese president had asked the UN team to add those attacks to the inquiry.
Serge Brammertz, deputy prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, met Secretary General Kofi Annan to discuss the possibility of taking the job from German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, who will finish his six-month term as chief investigator on January 1st.
Mr Brammertz is overseeing the investigation of war crimes in the Congo and northern Uganda for the tribunal, and would have to be released from his duties by the ICC's chief prosecutor and the countries which founded the court, diplomats said.
The former president of that group, Jordanian ambassador Prince Zeid, praised Mr Brammertz as "among the very best prosecutors and investigators in the world today" and said his potential selection was a vote of confidence in the competence of the world court.
The US, which is a strong backer of the Hariri investigation but opposed the founding of the ICC, does not have a problem with a candidate based there, said US ambassador John Bolton.
"I'm not going to comment on specific individuals," said Mr Bolton, who has been one of the most vocal critics of the court. "A person's entire career should be taken into consideration."
Mr Brammertz has had long experience in Belgium investigating cross-border organised crime, human trafficking and narcotics smuggling.
Mr Mehlis has concluded that senior Syrian and Lebanese officials were involved in Mr Hariri's killing.