debkafile Exclusive: New German chancellor Angela Merkel has hinted Detlev Mehlis should back out of the UN inquiry into the murder of former prime

The chief UN investigator announced his final report to the UN Security Council in mid-December will be his last even if the mandate is extended. He told Lebanese reporters Thursday night he was quitting for personal reasons. debkafile adds: Among these reasons is advice from the new German chancellor Angela Merkel’s office to avoid leading Berlin into a collision with Damascus or President Bashar Assad.
The German investigator said to reporters he will not go to Vienna next week to personally interrogate the Syrian officials whom Damascus keeps on promising to make available. Furthermore, he does not believe they will actually be delivered. He denied offering the Syrians guarantees against the officers’ arrest, as Damascus claimed. He said the Lebanese government was free to demand an international warrant for their arrest if they became suspects in the Hariri murder case.
Mehlis accused the Assad regime of a propaganda war to discredit his inquiry in the style of communist governments in East Europe in the Cold War. debkafile reports: A rumor was planted in Arab circles accusing the German investigator of finding against Damascus because his mother was Jewish and buried on the Golan heights. Mehlis declared angrily that his mother, aged 81, is not Jewish and lives in Berlin with her 86-year old husband.