UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The Security Council voted unanimously on Monday for a resolution ordering Syria to cooperate fully with a U.N. investigation of the assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister or face possible “further action.”
The chief U.N. investigator, German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, already has named Syrian officials as suspects in the assassination in the plot to kill Rakif Hariri and 22 others in a February 15 bombing in Beirut. In a recent report, he said the killing was organized by Syrian security officials and their Lebanese allies.
“We have affirmed our just demands of the Syrian government — and made it clear that failure to comply with these demands will lead to serious consequences from the international community,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the 15-member council.
Unanimity was achieved in the Security Council after the United States, France and Britain, sponsors of the resolution, agreed at the last minute to drop an explicit threat of economic sanctions against Syria. Otherwise Russia, China and Algeria were expected to abstain, diplomats said.
Instead, the resolution warns the council “could consider further action” if Syria does not meet demands in the resolution. One of them is ordering Damascus to detain anyone who Mehlis wants to question. Mehlis has returned to Beirut to continue his investigation.
Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara sharply criticized Mehlis for accusing his country without due process and basing his charges on flimsy information.
Shara said implicating top Syrian officials in Hariri’s assassination was like charging U.S., Spanish and British authorities with involvement in September 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington, the March 11, 2004, bombings in Madrid and July 7, 2005, attacks in London.
An angry British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw called Shara’s comments “appalling,” “absurd” and “the most grotesque and insensitive comparison.”
Rice later called Shara’s speech “a tirade that made the most bizarre connection.”
FOREIGN MINISTERS ON HAND
The importance of the meeting was underlined by the attendance of 11 foreign ministers of the 15 council members. They negotiated until minutes before the vote, which was presided over by Romanian Foreign Minister Mihai-Razvan Ungureanu.
The resolution, No. 1636, also calls for a financial freeze and travel ban on individual suspects to be named by the Mehlis commission or the Lebanese government. At the insistence of Russia, that demand was weakened and now any Security Council member can object to a name on such a list.
Mehlis’ report touched close to the family of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He cited possible involvement in the plot of Maher Assad, his brother, and Assef Shawkat, his brother-in-law and the chief of military intelligence.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the changes in the resolution removed “unnecessary and ungrounded threats.” But he told reporters, “We want this statement to be followed by specific action” from Syria.
Algerian Foreign Minister Mohamed Bedjaoui said that as the only Arab council member, “I would like to state here loud and clear that the cowardly assassination … must not under any pretext go unpunished.”
He called the killing “absolute evil” but cautioned against a “hasty threat of sanctions.”
The death of Hariri, an opponent of Syrian domination of his country, transformed Lebanon’s political landscape. The killing led to a pullout of Syrian troops from Lebanon after three decades and has put increasing pressure on Lebanon’s pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud to resign.
France’s foreign minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, said the Security Council had “only one aim: the truth, the whole truth.”
But Brazil had hesitations about sanctions. Its foreign minister, Celso Amorim, said his country did not favor “hasty decisions” that could further endanger the stability of the Middle East.
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing also spoke against any “willful” use of sanctions and noted Mehlis would continue investigating until at least December 15.
Rice has sought to isolate Syria over the past year because of Lebanon. And she has accused Damascus of allowing foreign fighters to cross over its border to Iraq where more than 150,000 U.S. troops are fighting a bloody insurgency.