Lebanese people light candles on Hariri’s grave. (Reuters)

UNITED NATIONS, February 19, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Amid mounting foreign pressure on Lebanon over the assassination, the UN decided Friday, February 18, to send a security team to investigate the killing of former prime minister Rafiq Al-Hariri.

Peter Fitzgerald, an Irish deputy police commissioner, is expected to leave for Beirut in the next few days to begin work, Reuters quoted UN spokesman Fred Eckhard as saying.

The former Lebanese premier was killed on Monday, February 14, in a deadly blast that targeted his motorcade in a western Beirut area.

On Tuesday, February 15, the UN Security Council asked UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to report urgently “on the circumstances, causes and consequences” of the killing of Hariri.

The US administration wants Security Council members to consider measures that could be taken against the assassins but it was unclear how many council members would agree.

Though he did not point the finger at Syria, wartime US President George W. Bush said on Thursday, February 17, that Damascus should comply with a UN resolution demanding its troops leave Lebanon and should allow Lebanese parliamentary elections scheduled for May to be free and fair.

Washington recalled its ambassador to the Arab country on Tuesday in reaction to the bombing.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice did not rule out on Thursday the use of military force against Syria.

In May, Washington imposed some economic sanctions including a ban on US exports to Syria other than food and medicine.

Syria blames Israel for the grisly crime, categorically denying any involvement in the killing of Hariri.

Unlikely to Cooperate

The Lebanese government was unlikely to cooperate with the UN team, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“This issue was proposed by the opposition and we did not agree on that,” Defense Minister Abdel Rahim Mrad told state television, referring to a cabinet meeting the previous day.

Asked if his government would work with the UN team he said: “I do not think so.”

Mrad complained that the government had not even been notified by the world body as to the commission's mission and terms of reference.

He took particular issue with Fitgerald's appointment, saying that Beirut should have been given a veto over the choice.

“The council of ministers did not agree ... on how to deal with this issue in particular,” he said.

“This issue is up to the council of ministers and chiefly the prime minister.”

The announcement threatens to put Lebanon on a collision course with both France, its former colonial power, and the US.

Lebanon has earlier resisted US-French calls for an international probe into the assassination but invited Swiss explosives and DNA experts to help in its own investigation.

“Uprising”

The opposition is championing an “independence uprising”. (Reuters)

Developments inside Lebanon were no less dramatic.

More than 40 of Lebanon's 128 MPs on Friday called for an “independence uprising” against Syria 's grip, the first time they had used the term.

Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and other leading opposition figures blame the government and Syria for Hariri's death and called for the cabinet resignation.

Prime Minister Omar Karameh struck back, accusing the opposition of “planning a coup d'etat” but adding that his government remained open to dialogue, reported AFP.

Mrad vowed that the security forces would clamp down on any illegal demonstrations following the opposition's call for a wave of sit-ins against his government.

Information Minister Elie Firzli accused French President Jacques Chirac of having a direct hand in the opposition's campaign.

“Chirac made himself a direct party to lead the battle on the Lebanese scene,” Firzli charged.

Tourism Minister Farid Al-Khazen stepped down in another sign of the country's political turbulence, according to Reuters.

Khazen, a Maronite Christian, became the first minister to quit because of the assassination and said he had done so because the government was unable to “remedy the dangerous situation in the country”.

“There is no substitute for national dialogue on the basis of the Taif agreement,” he said, referring to the deal that ended a 1975-1990 civil war and committed Syria to moving the troops it keeps in Lebanon to the eastern Bekaa Valley.

Hariri's killing sparked anti-Syrian fury with thousands of Lebanese taking to the streets demanding the immediate withdrawal of Syrian forces.

Syrian ambassador to the US Emad Mostafa said last week in an interview with CNN that the Syrian troops in Lebanon are a “stabilizing factor.”

Lebanon resumed normal life on Friday after three days of mourning.

Traffic jams returned to Beirut streets as people went back to work for the first time since Monday's bombing, which raised fears for stability in a country still recovering from its 1975-90 civil war.

Lebanese of all religious beliefs have flocked to the grave of the benevolent billionaire to bring flowers and light candles.