BEIRUT, Lebanon, October 14 (Lebanonwire) -- A day after accusing the Lebanese media of precipitating the death of Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan, Syria escalated its war of word in a dramatic fashion Friday, accusing the Future Movement's Al Mustaqbal’s daily and TV station and the late Premier Rafik Hariri’s “heirs” of collaboration with Israel and of plotting Hariri’s assassination, Al Mustaqbal daily said Saturday.

In an unprecedented campaign that dwarfed previous verbal attacks, state sponsored Syrian daily Ath Thawra went as far as demonizing Al Mustaqbal daily, accusing it of being on “equal footing with the Israeli press, plotting the murder of Hariri, and sowing hatred ahead of the UN report by Detlev Mehlis, the lead investigator in the Hariri murder probe, who traveled to Vienna yesterday.

“As the daily speaking on behalf of the late prime minister Rafik Hariri’s heirs becomes united with the direction of the Israeli press, our duty now is to unveil with certainty the probability of evil intentions with regard to who was behind the premier’s assassination,” Ath Thawra wrote, with a clear reference to Saad Hariri being his dad's murderer.

The Syrian daily correlated “the Hariri beneficiaries and their political and financial lobby” with whom it called “those who benefited regionally from the murder, with Israel at their forefront.”

“How come the Hariri machine and those who divided the spoils of Hariri’s wealth didn't ask about Israel’s interest in killing the premier since he was their opponent?" the Syrian daily asked.

Ath Thawra went on to say that the ongoing investigation has ignored two major aspects so far: Israel who the paper called the “prime suspect” and Hariri’s “heirs” who according to the daily were the closest to Hariri and the most willing to increase their power, influence and finances at the expense of the premier’s blood.

“Israel and Al Mustaqbal’s daily and TV station have been courting each other if not planning their media campaign together...” the Syria daily said.

Daily Al Mustaqbal said that the recent Syrian “immoral” crusade exposes the country’s state of confusion following the “killing” of Kanaan, which it said indicated that the Mehlis report was not “empty”, and leaving it cornered into making invalid insinuations that “puts the victim in the shoes of the killer.”

Member of the Pro-Syrian Hezbollah Party, MP Mohammad Raad said yesterday “we will not accept Mehlis to become a political analyst, for we have plenty of those in Lebanon.”

“We want a report that is based on truths and facts and which does not lead the country in the direction that the greedy and arrogant wants it to go,” Raad said.

Raad saw that “Lebanon’s priorities are to thwart foreign efforts at confiscating its political will and obliterating its national identity, adding, “weapons are our people’s right and what is right cannot be confiscated.”

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