UN questioning of Syrian officials in Hariri probe to end Wednesday News
UN questioning of Syrian officials in Hariri probe to end Wednesday

[JURIST] The interrogation of Syrian officials [JURIST report], part of a UN inquiry into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minster Rafik Hariri [UN materials; JURIST news archive], will be suspended after the last of five officials is questioned and returned to Syria on Wednesday. Two officials, who were brought into the UN offices in Austria via a concealed entrance, were questioned on Monday; several sources report that the head of the Syrian intelligence service's Palestinian affairs department, Lt. Gen. Zafir Youssef, Lt. Gen. Abd al-Karim Abbas, and retired Col. Samih al-Qashaani will be questioned on Wednesday. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad agreed to the questioning in late November [JURIST report], with the hope that it would correct numerous alleged errors in the UN probe that led to a October interim report [text] suggesting the assassination could not have occurred without Syrian involvement. BBC News 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.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.