BEIRUT - Lebanese MP Saad Hariri, the son of slain ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, has accused Syria's "terrorist regime" of seeking to topple the government in Lebanon, newspapers said Thursday.
"I am convinced that a war is being launched against us by a terrorist regime which is seeking to change the Lebanese democratic regime," Hariri was quoted as saying in extracts from an interview to be aired later Thursday by Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television.
Rafiq Hariri's assassination in a Beirut bomb blast on February 14 led to protests and international pressure that forced Syria to end its 29-year military presence in its smaller neighbour.
An international investigation has implicated a number of Syrian officials in Hariri's murder, although Damascus denies any involvement.
But a series of bomb attacks against Damascus critics in Lebanon over the past year has forced Saad Hariri and other anti-Syrian figures to take refuge abroad for security reasons.
"The Syrian regime found itself alone in the middle of troubled waters, whereas before February 14, many friends had been ready to help it and give advise to its officials who will now only reap what they sow," Hariri said.
The parliamentary majority led by Hariri and influential Druze leader MP Walid Jumblatt has refused any political compromise and continues to demand the truth about Rafiq Hariri's killing.
An MP from Jumblatt's bloc, Wael Abu Faour, said Arab League chief Amr Mussa - who is attempting to ease tensions between Lebanon and Syria - was not welcome in Beirut if he was seeking to clear Syria over Hariri's assassination.
"If Amr mussa is coming to Lebanon to hide the political evidence of the assassination, after others tried to hide material evidence... or to clear the criminals, he is not welcome at all," he was quoted as saying.
"Lebanese demands are clear, the first being the punishment of the criminals whatever their political or military ranks were."
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