UN to help investigate Gemayel killing

United Nations: The Security Council on Wednesday quickly approved a request from Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora for UN help in investigating the assassination of Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel.

The 15-nation council unanimously approved a letter inviting the UN commission investigating the 2005 murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Al Hariri to also help the Lebanese authorities bring Gemayel's killers to justice.

The council acted just hours after Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent a letter informing members that Siniora wanted "technical assistance" from the UN investigation commission in his government's investigation of Tuesday's killing.

"We have decided to respond swiftly," Peru's UN Ambassador Jorge Voto-Bernales, the current council president, told reporters minutes after signing a letter to Annan approving the assistance. "There was no discussion on this issue. Actually all members agreed on this very quickly."

Argentina's UN Ambassador Cesar Mayoral said it was very important to start the investigation quickly.

"If you send the letter today, the investigation could start tomorrow," he said.

The UN inquiry led by Belgian Serge Brammertz is already looking into 14 other apparently politically motivated attacks in Lebanon since Hariri's killing, and Brammertz has reported evidence that all 15 cases were linked in some ways.

Gemayel's slaying would bring the total number of cases under UN investigation in Lebanon to 16.

John Bolton, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said Washington hoped the Brammertz investigators could begin helping out on the Gemayel murder "as rapidly as possible, while the crime scene evidence is still fresh and before obstruction of justice can take place."

Gemayel, an anti-Syrian cabinet minister, was gunned down in his car at point-blank range on Tuesday near Beirut.

He was killed after a cabinet vote to tentatively approve UN plans for a new international court to try suspects in the Hariri murder and the 14 related cases.

Several prominent anti-Syrian leaders have blamed Syria for Gemayel's death and warned that more killings could be in the works. Damascus has denied any role in the Gemayel and Hariri assassinations.

"This was an attack on the Lebanese government, the planned international tribunal and the United Nations," former Hariri chief investigator Detlev Mehlis said in an interview published in Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung on Wednesday.

"The indications after this attack point to elements that want to topple the Lebanese government. These are the so-called pro-Syrian elements in Lebanon. They have an obvious motive," said Mehlis, who led the UN probe until Brammertz took over.