The Hariri Case.(Rafiq Hariri)

Another link to the long chain of events from the 1974 Golan deal is the case of former Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri, who was assassinated on Feb. 14, 2005, and both the Obama administration and Sarkozy have made it clear they were backing a UN court to begin trying this case on March 1. Assad's regime has consistently denied any involvement in this murder or the subsequent assassination of other Lebanese VIPs. So on Afghanistan, the Gulf, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and Pakistan, the difference between the Bush and Obama strategies is not much.

The Lebanese authorities on Feb. 25 released three men who had been detained for more than three years in connection with the Hariri assassination. But the authorities kept four senior Syria-guided generals, heads of the police and security services at the time, in jail. The release on bail of the three - two Lebanese brothers and one Syrian - came just days before the official start of the UNSC-mandated tribunal. The tribunal is based in The Hague.

In a series of interviews in the Lebanese media, tribunal officials have hinted that indictments will not be issued immediately but that the four generals will be transferred to The Hague before the June 7 Lebanese parliamentary elections. Syria, which had maintained a military presence in and control over Lebanon from April 1976, was forced to withdraw its troops from the neighbouring Arab country after widespread protests in the aftermath of the Hariri killing.

The tribunal proceedings may affect the political landscape in Lebanon, which is divided roughly in pro-Syria and anti-Syria factions. It may also affect the position of Assad's regime itself as it is making a push to end several years of political isolation under the previous US administration. Senior US Democratic politicians, led by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, have visited Damascus and said that the Obama administration is open to improved relations with Syria but that Damascus does have to change its behaviour - a demand on which Bush was insisting since the US invaded Iraq in March 2003.

Syria Builds Missile Facility Over Israeli-Bombed Site: News agencies on Feb. 25 quoted "diplomats" as saying Syria had built a missile facility over the ruins of what the US says was a nuclear reactor destroyed by Israeli war-planes on Sept. 6, 2007. Citing comments by Syrian nuclear chief Ibrahim 'Uthman at a closed meeting on Feb. 25, the diplomats said the new structure at al-Kibar site appeared to be a missile control centre or actual launching pad.

The diplomats, from Western delegations to the IAEA in Vienna, demanded anonymity for divulging details about what 'Uthman told the agency's 35-state Governing Board. After Israel bombed the site, Washington presented intelligence purporting to show that the target was a nearly finished nuclear reactor built with North Korean help that would have been able to produce plutonium.

Syria has denied secret nuclear activities but has blocked IAEA inspectors from visits beyond an initial inspection to al-Kibar. Environmental samples from that trip have revealed traces of man-made uranium and graphite. But UN officials say it is too early to say whether the graphite had any nuclear applications.

Syria had previously said the site was military and that it was being rebuilt. But 'Uthman suggested the facility in place of the bombed target was either a missile launching command centre or a launching pad. 'Uthman said that, when IAEA Deputy Director Olli Heinonen visited the site in June 2008, Heinonen was asked whether the Syrians should "put a missile in position" - apparently to demonstrate its present use - with the IAEA official saying no. One of the diplomats said the briefing was told that the finding of 80 uranium particles in the environmental samples was "significant". But 'Uthman played down the laboratory results in comments outside the meeting - and denied outright that graphite was found.

During his recent visits to Beirut and Damascus and talks with Assad, US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry must "change its behaviour" on Iraq and Lebanon for relations to witness an upswing. He said Syria must stop backing Hizbullah and Damascus-based leaders of Palestinian rejectionist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

During the same week, however, Syrian PM Muhammad Otari went to Baghdad and met with Maleki and other Iraqi leaders. This was the most senior Syrian official to visit Iraq since Mu'allem's in 2006.

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