BEIRUT, Lebanon, October 12 (Lebanonwire) -- Detlev Mehlis’s report on the Rafic Hariri murder will not have 100% conclusive evidence but will show that the planning took months prior to the assassination and was the work of an institution and not individuals, a western diplomatic source told Dar AL Hayat online daily.

The unnamed source said the report will incriminate a few members of the Syrian security apparatus and might come to a conclusion that “orders came from the top leadership.” He said UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was keen on asking Mehlis, the lead UN investigator, not to point any fingers without concrete evidence.

The source said that UN 1595 gives Mehlis until December 15 to expand his probe “and if his October 21st report is not final, it doesn’t mean that Syria is off the hook, despite that country’s claims that the report doesn’t incriminate its leaders.”

“Syria will be in for a big surprise, because everyone is intent on getting to the bottom of the probe even if it takes giving Mehlis an extension,” the source said.

Sources close to Prime Minister Fouad Siniora told the daily that during this Thursday’s Cabinet session, ministers will suggest making an official request to extend Mehlis’s mission beyond October 21st.

The western diplomatic source said that Mehlis needed more time to complete his investigation in Syria “because he did not receive proper cooperation from officials who refused the investigator’s request for search and seizure warrants against potential witnesses.”

The source denied any knowledge regarding the fate of the four Lebanese officers detained in the case and whether they would be incriminated saying, “Facts have so far proven that the testimony on which the arrests were based had gaping holes in it.”

The source told the daily that Mehlis’s report coincides with Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Terje Roed-Larsen’s report on Lebanon’s implementation of UN 1559, which is due for discussion by the UN Security Council on October 31st, right after the Mehlis report is.

“Larsen’s report is important because it might include additional procedures to his previous report, based on Syria’s interferences aimed at destabilizing the stability in Lebanon, by allowing the smuggling of Palestinians and weapons through its borders,” the source said, adding “Larsen’s report will determine how to control the border issue.”

Copyright © 1999-2005 Lebanonwire^®.com. All rights reserved.