U.N. Urges Syrian Cooperation

The chief investigator into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri urged Syria on Tuesday to cooperate better with his team so it can "fill in the gaps" about the organizers and perpetrators of the terrorist act.

German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis addressed the U.N. Security Council five days after issuing a report implicating top Syrian and Lebanese intelligence officials in Hariri's assassination and accusing Syria of cooperating in form but not substance with the investigation.

Shortly before he spoke, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton and French Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said they expected to circulate a joint resolution very soon.

It is likely to demand Syria's cooperation with Mehlis' investigating commission, though how strong the language will be, and whether the resolution will be under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter which can be enforced with military action, is still being discussed.

"The formal presentation of the Mehlis report in the Security Council opens the door for the Bush Administration, working with France and the U.K., to find common ground to pass a resolution demanding Syrian cooperation with the investigation," said CBS News Foreign Affairs Analyst Pamela Falk. "More because of the importance of pressuring Syria to cooperate to prevent arms flows to militias attacking U.S. troops in Iraq."

Mehlis' investigation has been extended until Dec. 15 and he told the council his team will re-interview a number of witnesses, interview new ones, complete its examination of recently obtained evidence, and cooperate with Lebanese judicial and security authorities.

The investigating commission also believes the extended investigation "would provide yet another opportunity for the Syrian authorities to show greater and meaningful cooperation, and to provide any relevant substantial evidence on the assassination."

"For this reason, the Syrian authorities may wish to carry out on their part their own investigation into the assassination of Mr. Hariri in an open and transparent manner," he said. "This would enable the commission to 'fill in the gaps' and to have a clearer picture about the organizers and perpetrators of the Feb. 14 terrorist act."

For such a complex case as the Hariri assassination, Mehlis added that it would be entirely normal for the investigation to take "many months, if not years ... to cover all aspects of investigation with certitude and to prepare a case for prosecution."

He called for increased security for his team of 30 investigators from 17 countries, saying the already high risk the team faced is certain to increase following the report. He added that "the commission has received a number of threats which were deemed, in the assessment of our security personnel, to be credible."

Washington and Paris quickly joined forces to back the Mehlis report and Bolton and de La Sabliere arrived for Tuesday's Security Council meeting walking side by side.

"We will be producing a joint French-American resolution here just as soon as we can," Bolton said. "It is a matter of moving urgently, but we want to do it deliberately and prudently and with wide support, which we think we're going to get. We're very optimistic about it, but it's important to move in a careful fashion."

"But Syria's response Tuesday to Mehlis' report, presented by their U.N. Ambassador Fayssal Mekdad was that Syria had been falsely accused," reports Falk, "sending a continued message of defiance."

Mehlis' findings caused an uproar in the region and brought swift denials from the Syrian government, which called the report biased, politicized and an American plot to take over the region.

Mekdad said every paragraph in the Mehlis report deserved to be refuted and he criticized Mehlis for accusing Syria before the end of the investigation, saying the commission "should not have pointed the finger or cast doubt on anybody."

"Syria has cooperated faithfully and sincerely with the Independent International Commission," Mekdad told the council. "Syria will continue its cooperation..."

Boutros Assaker, the acting secretary-general in Lebanon's foreign ministry, called on "all concerned parties to sincerely and effectively cooperate" with the Mehlis inquiry so it can obtain "the complete and absolute truth and the punishment of all the criminals and the murderers, wherever they are."

The United States has stepped up pressure against Syria since the report.

U.S. President George W. Bush said "serious pressure" needs to be applied against Damascus but diplomacy must be given a chance before the United States takes any military action.

The U.S. administration is talking about next Monday as a target date for a resolution, and a ministerial meeting of the Security Council to give its adoption added prominence. But Russia and China,
both veto-wielding members of the council, don't appear in any hurry, and Moscow, which has close ties to Syria, would likely oppose sanctions or any reference to them.

"With intense negotiations continuing to persuade China and Russia to produce a Resolution," adds Falk, "there is an expectation that, with the release of a second report on Syria Thursday, that there will be action by the Security Council."

Algeria's U.N. Ambassador Abdallah Baali, the only Arab member of the Security Council, said "obviously, everybody has to cooperate with the commission in order to get the whole truth and so this applies to all concerned including Syria."

But he indicated it was too early to envisage "any action, or any kind of measures," like sanctions.

Asked about sanctions as he left the council's closed-door discussion following Mehlis' public briefing, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said "what is important is that ... everyone cooperates with Mehlis so that we can get to the truth."

The Mehlis report accused key Syrian and Lebanese security officials of orchestrating the Feb. 14 bombing that killed Hariri and 20 others. Mehlis acknowledged that he deleted references implicating the brother and brother-in-law of Syrian President Bashar Assad because he didn't know the report would be made public and the allegations were not corroborated.