DAMASCUS, Syria, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Syria said Saturday it invited to the country a U.N. investigator probing the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.
The official Syrian news agency, SANA, quoted the Syrian ambassador at the U.N. Faisal al-Mekdad as saying Damascus invited German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis to Syria on Monday or Tuesday.
He said the invitation came as part of his country's readiness to cooperate with the international investigation team into the Feb. 14 assassination of Hariri in a massive explosion in Beirut.
Mehlis, who left Beirut for New York earlier in the day, said he wanted to question some Syrians whom he did not name in connection with the case.
Before Mehlis left the Lebanese capital, the authorities arrested three top former security chiefs and the current head of the presidential guards upon the U.N. investigator's recommendation.
The three pro-Syrian former officials controlled the country's security before the Syrians pulled out of Lebanon in late April.
