UN adopts resolution demanding co-operation from Syria
The United States, France and Britain pressed for the resolution following last week's report by the UN investigating commission, which implicated top Syrian and Lebanese security officials in the February 14 bombing that killed Rafik Hariri and 20 others. The report also accused Syria of not co-operating fully with the inquiry.
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 UN Charter, which is militarily enforceable.
The resolution requires Syria to detain anyone the UN investigators consider a suspect and let investigators determine the location and conditions under which the individual would be questioned. It would also freeze assets and impose a travel ban on anyone identified as a suspect.
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 has refused a request from the chief UN investigator to be interviewed. Investigators also want to question Mr Assad and Mr Shawkat.
The US invited foreign ministers of the 15 Security Council nations to attend the meeting to send a strong message to Syria to co-operate with the inquiry, and a dozen ministers showed up, including US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and ministers from Russia, China, Britain and France.
Rice told the council that Syria had been put on notice by the international community that it must co-operate with the inquiry 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 UN and to co-operate 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."
