U.N. Passes Resolution Threatening Syria
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council yesterday approved unanimously a resolution that threatens Syrian Baathists with sanctions, echoing measures that led to the toppling of the Iraqi Baathist regime in 2003. Syria is not expected to cooperate with the U.N. investigation of Lebanese leader Rafik Hariri’s killing, which might lead to further measures according to the resolution, including economic isolation and even military action.
Britain’s foreign minister, Jack Straw, clashed with his Syrian counterpart, Farouk al-Sharaa, at yesterday’s session, attended by 12 foreign ministers of 15 council member countries. “I look forward to the full cooperation of Syria,”Mr.Straw said, “But I have to say after what I’ve heard, I’m not holding my breath.”
The resolution followed a report last week of a team headed by Detlev Mehlis, which said that “converging evidence” has implicated top Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies in the February 14 assassination of Hariri. The report noted that Syria has only partially cooperated with the U.N. investigation.
As proof that Syria has cooperated, Mr. al-Sharaa yesterday said that some in Mr. Mehlis’s team told him they would like to return to Syria “as tourists” one day.
“I would just note that Dr. Sharaa himself has been noted by the Mehlis Commission of not having cooperated,” Secretary of State Rice told reporters yesterday. Ms. Rice added that another U.N. envoy, Terje Roed-Larsen, has determined that Syria continues to arm Lebanese militias, and that terrorist organizations such as Islamic Jihad are headquartered in Damascus. “So Syria’s destabilizing behavior in the region is being noted in many ways, and I am certain that if it is necessary for the council to get back together, we will do so,” she said.
The sponsors of yesterday’s resolution – America, France, and Britain – compromised some of the original provisions in order to reach the unanimous vote. A direct reference spelling out specific sanctions meant to enforce Syrian compliance was dropped yesterday morning. Never theless, the resolution raised the stakes significantly for Syria. Like the Security Council resolutions leading up to the Iraq war, it is governed by Chapter 7 of the U.N. charter, which allows enforcement including financial sanctions and military strikes.
“I don’t think we should overdramatize Chapter 7,” the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, told The New York Sun. Russia insisted on creating a special committee to designate Syrian officials as noncooperative, and therefore subject to punishment. The committee allows Syria’s protectors on the council to block any such designation.
Dismissing those compromises as “inside the U.N. bubble wordsmithing,” American ambassador John Bolton said the resolution would send Syria the necessary message.
At the end of the council debate Mr. al-Sharaa said that arguing that Syria is responsible for the Hariri murder is like arguing that America, Spain, and Britain could be responsible for terrorist acts in their own territories, such as the attacks of September 11, 2001. Mr. Straw said that this was “the most grotesque and insensitive comparison.” Ms. Rice called Mr. al-Sharaa’s speech an “unbelievable tirade.”