UNITED NATIONS (AP):
THE UNITED Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution yesterday demanding Syria's full cooperation with a U.N. investigation into the assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister and warning of possible "further action" if it doesn't.
The United States invited foreign ministers of the 15 council nations to attend the meeting to send a strong message to Syria that the international community wants compliance and a dozen showed up, including U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and ministers from Russia, China, Britain and France.
The United States, France and Britain pressed for the resolution following last week's tough report by a U.N. investigating commission, which implicated top Syrian and Lebanese security officials in the Feb. 14 bombing that killed Rafik Hariri and 20 others. The report accused Syria of not cooperating fully with the probe.
The three co-sponsors agreed to drop a direct threat of sanctions against Syria in order to get support from Russia and China, which opposed sanctions while the investigation is still under way. Nonetheless, the resolution was adopted under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter, which is militarily enforceable.
REQUIREMENTS
The resolution requires Syria to detain anyone the U.N. investigators consider a suspect and let investigators determine the location and conditions under which the individual would be questioned. It also would freeze assets and impose a travel ban on anyone identified as a suspect by the commission.
Those provisions could pose a problem for Syrian President Bashar Assad as well as his brother, Maher Assad, and his brother-in-law, Assef Shawkat, the chief of military intelligence. The Syrian leader refused a request from Mehlis to be interviewed, and investigators also want to question his brother and brother-in-law.
ECONOMIC SANCTIONS
The co-sponsors had called for possible economic sanctions if Syria didn't cooperate with the investigation, citing the U.N. Charter. But Russia and China objected strongly to mentioning sanctions while the investigation into Rafik Hariri's killing is still under way.
The final text dropped the reference to the U.N. Charter, saying only that if Syria doesn't cooperate "the council, if necessary, could consider further action." That could, ultimately, include sanctions.
In another concession to try to get Russia and China on board, the co-sponsors also agreed to drop an appeal to Syria to renounce all support "for all forms of terrorist action and all assistance to terrorist groups."
Nonetheless, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the council after the vote that Syria had been put on notice by the international community that it must cooperate with the investigation led by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis.
"With our decision today, we show that Syria has isolated itself from the international community _ through its false statements, its support for terrorism, its interference in the affairs of its neighbours, and its destabilising behaviour in the Middle East," Rice said. "Now, the Syrian government must make a strategic decision to fundamentally change its behaviour."
"The Chapter VII resolution that we are passing today is the only way to compel the Syrian government to accept the just demands of the United Nations and to cooperate fully with the Mehlis investigation," she said.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the Security Council is "putting the government of Syria on notice that our patience has limits."
"The people of the Lebanon have become all too acquainted with grief," he said. "We owe them a better future and this resolution is one way of providing them with that better future."
France's Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy stressed that the resolution has one aim: "the truth, the whole truth about Rafik Hariri's assassination in order that those responsible for it answer for their crime."
By adopting the resolution, he said, the council showed solidarity with Lebanon, support for the Mehlis commission's work _ which has been extended until Dec. 15 _ and demanded "firm and urgent cooperation" from Syria.
Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa, who flew to New York to attend the council meeting, listened to minister after minister demand his government's cooperation.
Several noted Damascus' recent promises to cooperate.
Assad on Saturday ordered that a judicial committee be formed to investigate Hariri's assassination. A presidential decree said the committee will cooperate with the U.N. probe and Lebanese judicial authorities.
Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, whose country has large Lebanese and Syrian communities, made clear that any further action against Syria would require Security Council approval.
"Brazil will not favour hasty decisions that may lead to an undesirable escalation of the situation or further endanger the stability of the region," he said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the resolution was useful because it showed the council's determination to discover the truth behind Hariri's assassination. "The final text of the resolution, of course, is not ideal," he said.
Russia said last week it opposed sanctions against Syria, its longtime ally. Late Sunday, Lavrov criticised what he described as attempts to turn the Security Council into an investigative body, in comments broadcast by Russia's Channel One television.
The final negotiations on the text began Sunday night at a dinner hosted by Rice for the foreign ministers of the four other permanent council nations _ Russia's Lavrov, China's Li Zhaoxing, Britain's Straw and France's Philippe Douste-Blazy. Lavrov and Li met separately for 45 minutes before the dinner, which lasted more than two hours.
The negotiations among the five countries resumed early Monday morning and then the entire 15-member council met behind closed doors.
Tishrin, a government newspaper in Syria, criticised the draft as "tough and unbalanced" and called on the Security Council to adopt "a balanced and objective" resolution "that would not be a clear translation of the U.S. administration's will."
As al-Sharaa headed to New York, Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Walid Moallem toured Gulf countries in what appeared to be an effort to rally Arab support ahead of yesterday's council meeting.
While Syria has rejected accusations of its involvement in Hariri's killing, it buckled under international pressure and withdrew its soldiers from Lebanon in April, ending a 29-year presence in its smaller neighbour.
