Middle Eastern security sources have claimed that they took revenge on Hariri, who was agitating for the departure of Syria’s 14,000 soldiers.

“It was typical Middle Eastern revenge,” said one source. “Al-Hariri was not the first or the last leading figure to be murdered on the drug scene in Lebanon.”

The theory received backing yesterday from a Kuwaiti newspaper which blamed the killing on leading figures in the Syrian military.

The sources said that those behind the assassination may have hoped that the resulting chaos would then prevent Syria from implementing the United Nations resolution 1559, which requires it to withdraw its occupation force.

However, the attack instead increased pressure at homeand abroad for a pull-out. The Lebanese opposition has also urged a peaceful uprising to force the resignation of Omar Karami, the pro-Syrian prime minister.

Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley has long been an important drug-producing area. At the beginning of the 1990s, in response to American pressure, growers were forced to reduce their cultivation of opium poppies and cannabis. They turned instead to the production and marketing of heroin and cocaine. Lebanese heroin is widely exported.

Drugs are only part of the economic benefits derived by Syria. Syrian workers send home up to $1 billion a year and water is pumped from the al-Assi River.

“If the Syrians quit Lebanon, not only will the ruling sect lose the dirty drug money but the Syrian state will collapse in six months,” said one Lebanese source.

Meanwhile, the UN has asked Peter Fitzgerald, Ireland’s deputy police commissioner, to conduct an official investigation into Hariri’s assassination.

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