Lebanon Heads for Diplomatic Clash With Iraq Over Assassination

This nation headed for a diplomatic clash with Baghdad on Thursday over the alleged involvement of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s regime in the assassination of an Iraqi dissident here.

Two Iraqi diplomats, accused of involvement in the Tuesday killing of Sheik Taleb Ali Suheil, are being held in solitary confinement. Lebanese police are guarding the approaches to the Iraqi Embassy here to prevent the escape of a possible third assassin.

Suheil, 64, identified as a key figure in an alleged plot to overthrow Hussein last year, was fatally shot at his Beirut residence. The two suspects in custody--Mohammed Kazem Faris, 37, Iraq’s cultural attache in Beirut, and Khaled Alwan Khalaf, 35, the embassy’s commercial attache--are being held despite their status as diplomats.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Faris Bweiz has asked Iraq to lift the diplomatic immunity for those two and to turn over a third suspect, Hadi Hassan, believed to be hiding in the embassy.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Said Sahaf has written to Bweiz, denying any involvement on the part of its diplomats and calling for their release.

Lebanon’s senior diplomat in Baghdad arrived in Beirut on Thursday after being advised by the Lebanese Foreign Ministry to leave the Iraqi capital for fear of reprisal.

Efforts by the Lebanese government to impose security in the capital have already been challenged by two unsolved bombings in December and February and the unpunished assassination of a Jordanian diplomat in January.