Lebanon asks UN to extend Hariri assassination probe News
Lebanon asks UN to extend Hariri assassination probe

[JURIST] Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora [BBC backgrounder] formally asked UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan [official website; JURIST news archive] Saturday to extend the inquiry into the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri [UN materials; JURIST news archive] for six more months after its December 15 deadline, and be open for further extensions. Lebanon’s government agreed Thursday [JURIST report] to ask the UN to continue the Hariri assassination probe of the February 14 truck bombing. The chief investigator, German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, plans to leave his job immediately following his final scheduled report on the investigation on December 12, but Annan assured Siniora that he would try to persuade Mehlis to stay and complete the investigation. In an October interim report [text], Mehlis suggested the assassination was planned by top Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

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