U.N. Says Syria Must Cooperate on Hariri Investigation

UNITED NATIONS – Members of the U.N. Security Council agreed yesterday on the need for more “cooperation” from Syria in the ongoing investigation of the murder of a former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri. However, the means to achieve that cooperation, including whether to invoke a U.N. provision that allows for enforceable measures such as sanctions, emerged as a potential point of dispute in council consultations.The world “must make very clear to the Syrians that this is a really serious matter and that their nonchalant attitude, their efforts to discredit the investigation … are not the attitude of the international community,” Secretary of State Rice told reporters during a diplomatic visit to Canada yesterday.The Security Council will meet this morning for its first discussion on the report by the German U.N. investigator, Detlev Mehlis, which was highly critical of Syria’s part in the assassination. In the report, circulated to council members on Thursday, Syrian officials, including Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa, were cited for obstructing the investigation. America, Britain, and France hope to present the council with a resolution addressing the Mehlis report by early next week, when Ms. Rice and foreign ministers could vote on it.“It’s going to be a strong resolution,” America’s ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, told reporters. “We will certainly insist on Syrian cooperation. This is true confessions time for the government of Syria. No more obstruction. No more half-measures.” Mr. Bolton added that he has not heard any objections among the 15 council members to writing the resolution under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which allows for sanctions and military action.Resolutions that led to two wars in Iraq were under that charter provision, but invoking it often meets strong resistance from several members, including veto-yielding China. “Calling on Syria to cooperate is no problem, but I see no need to do it under Chapter 7,” China’s U.N. ambassador, Wang Guangya, told reporters yesterday. “Chapter 7 always leads to serious consequences. It is the dog that will bite, not just bark.”France indicated it prefers an incremental action, avoiding sanctions on Syria, at least initially. “If we need to make it longer, let’s do it, and afterwards let’s see what the consequences should be, including on the [sanctions] question,” Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said in Paris.“We are working very hard with France,” Mr. Bolton said, adding that Russia is being consulted. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley was in Moscow yesterday. Russia is a traditional ally of Syria.Mr. al-Sharaa, meanwhile, yesterday canceled a scheduled visit to Turtle Bay after it was made clear that today’s discussion of the Mehlis report would not be on the level of foreign ministers. “We have cooperated and we shall continue to cooperate,” Syria’s U.N. ambassador, Fayssal Mekdad, told reporters, arguing that there is no need for a new council resolution and certainly no need for sanctions on his country. “It’s blackmail of the council if they press in that direction,” he said.The government allowed thousands to demonstrate in the streets of the Syrian cities of Damascus and Aleppo yesterday. Schoolchildren and government employees were urged to join the demonstrations, meant to display to foreign cameras that the al-Assad regime is loved in the country.

U.N. Says Syria Must Cooperate on Hariri Investigation

U.N. Says Syria Must Cooperate on Hariri Investigation

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