I doubt Syria is linked with this assassination. There were no connections to Assad with the first assassination. Hezbollah was on it's own and it maybe there is even a spin off from Hezbollah responsible.

Forensic experts check the site of explosion near a crater in Beirut, Friday, Dec. 27, 2013. (The Daily Star/Mohammad Azakir)

...The March 14 coalition, (click here) which is headed by the Future Movement, pointed the finger of blame at the regime of Syria’s President Bashar Assad, which swiftly denied the allegations....

...The 62-year-old, who was also a close aide to former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, was headed to Hariri’s Downtown residence where a meeting of the March 14 coalition was under way....


At least 71 people (click here) were also wounded in the blast that targeted Shatah’s motorcade as it drove in the capital’s central district.

The March 14 coalition (click here) is named after the mass anti-Syrian rally on that date in 2005 in which over one million Lebanese converged on central Beirut to demand a withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon and an end to Syrian meddling in Lebanese political affairs.

The March 14 rally, held in response to a pro-Syrian demonstration on March 8, was the climax of the month-long series of rallies that followed the assassination of Rafik Hariri, a former Lebanese prime minister, in a massive truck bomb explosion on February 14, 2005....

Anytime Hezbollah is mentioned there is automatic mention of Assad. The March 14 coalition was organized following the assassination of a beloved Prime Minister of Lebanon.

...His (Former Minister Mohammad Shatah) killing comes days before the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon begins the trial of four Hezbollah suspects over the 2005 assassination of Hariri’s father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the founder of the Future Movement....

It may be the increased movement of Hezbollah in Lebanon is in response to the trial with very little to do with Syria.

Below is the Late Prime Minister's son Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri. I sure he was anticipating the trail of his father's murderers.

December 27, 2013 12:39 PM (Last updated: December 27, 2013 03:20 PM)

..."Those (click here) who assassinated Mohammad Shatah are the ones who assassinated Rafik Hariri; they are the ones who want to assassinate Lebanon,” Hariri said in a statement hours after a car bomb killed Shatah and five others in Downtown Beirut.

"The suspects are those who are running away from international justice and refuse to appear in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon; they are the ones opening the window of evil and chaos to Lebanon and the Lebanese and are drawing regional fires,” he added....

...He had no particular power base of his own, (click here) but his international experience was valued in government circles. Chatah has been described by Lebanon’s current Prime Minister Najib Mikati as a “noble political figure who believed in dialogue, the language of reason and the right to different views”. His work in government put him into contact with Hezbollah, though he was a vocal critic of it. A message on his Twitter account less than an hour before the blast accused the group of trying to take control of the country. The Shi’ite movement is now suspected by some of being behind his killing, although Hezbollah parliamentarian Ali Ammar described the explosion as a crime. “We condemn this terrorist act,” he told Hezbollah’s Al Manar television. “It is part of a terrorist wave which the region and Lebanon are witnessing.”