Undiplomatic Words By Syria At UN

Syria's foreign minister faced off with the U.N. Security Council, angrily rejecting a unanimous resolution that demands Damascus cooperate fully with an investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

Diplomats said they were shocked by Farouk al-Sharaa's response on Monday. He said accusing Syrian security forces of having advance knowledge of Hariri's killing was tantamount to saying U.S. officials knew ahead of time about the Sept. 11 attacks, Spain knew about the 2004 train bombings or Britain knew about this summer's London transit bombings.

And he went one step further, raising questions about why Britain had trained for similar scenarios soon before the London attacks.

"We know that such security organs, particularly the British, were fully aware that such attacks would take place and had prior training to face up to them," al-Sharaa said, jabbing his finger toward British Foreign Minister Jack Straw as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other foreign ministers looked on.

Britain, along with the U.S. and France, co-sponsored the resolution which passed with the support of all 15 nations on the Security Council, including Algeria, the only Arab nation on the council.

A few hundred Syrians waved flags, pledged support for their president and insisted that Syria was innocent of the murder of a Lebanese politician in a protest near the U.S. embassy on Tuesday, a day after the U.N. Security Council passed a tough resolution against their country.

"We are not criminals. We are not terrorists. We just need peace," declared one protester on the podium in Al-Rawda square, where patriotic songs blared from a loudspeaker.

Al-Sharaa's reaction visibly angered Straw, who called it "the most grotesque and insensitive comparison," "appalling," and "absurd."

Rice called his outburst "a tirade which made the most bizarre connection."

But it didn't surprise CBS News Foreign Affairs Analyst Pamela Falk because al-Sharaa "is cited in the report for misleading investigators."

The resolution threatened "further measures" if Syria does not start cooperating fully with the probe of Hariri's Feb. 14 slaying which also killed 20 other people.

The resolution came less than two weeks after lead investigator Detlev Mehlis released his report concluding it was not likely Hariri could have been killed without senior Syrian approval. The report accused Syria of not cooperating fully in the probe and Mehlis asked U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan for more time to pursue leads.

The resolution requires Syria to detain anyone considered a suspect by U.N. investigators.

Mehlis, whose mandate has been extended to Dec. 15, has also been given new authority by the council, and could seek to use it immediately. He is likely to seek to question Syrian President Bashar Assad's brother-in-law and chief of military intelligence Assef Shawkat, who has been implicated in the killing as well as the president's brother Maher Assad, who is also under suspicion.

"With a two-month extension on the mandate of the investigation, Security Council members are waiting to see if Syria cooperates with the demands of the U.N. resolution before considering next steps," says Falk.

Syria's fall from grace could benefit Israel, reports CBS News correspondent Robert Berger. Israeli officials hope that international pressure will prompt Syria to expel Palestinian militant groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad from their headquarters in Damascus.

About 300 people took part in Tuesday's protest, The Associated Press estimated. It was organized by a private group called the Syrian Committee for Public Relations, but it must have received state authorization as spontaneous demonstrations are extremely rare in tightly controlled Syria.

The head of the organizers, Nizar Mayhoub, said the demonstration was intended to protest the pressure on Syria — which is at its heaviest in decades — as well as to demonstrate against what he called intervention in Syria's internal affairs and the "politicization" of the Mehlis report.

Diplomats said al-Sharaa's reaction underscored Syria's isolation and highlighted the necessity for the warning to Damascus.

Straw said any council member concerned about adopting the resolution under a U.N. charter provision which is militarily enforceable should have their misgivings allayed by al-Sharaa's response.

"It sends a very strong signal to Syria of its isolation, but of course that signal was simply reinforced by the really unbelievable tirade of Syria's Foreign Minister, Mr. al-Sharaa," Rice told reporters after the council vote.

Rice pointed out that al-Sharaa himself was accused of lying in a letter to the Mehlis commission and said his intransigence showed Syria wanted to discredit the U.N. investigation even after a Security Council vote strongly supported it.

Though the resolution was significantly weakened, al-Sharaa was defiant in his response to the council. He accused Mehlis of essentially convicting Syria before it had faced trial.

"It proceeds from the presumption that Syria is accused of committing this crime rather than a presumption of innocence," al-Sharaa said. He insisted Assad's regime would "fully cooperate" with the Mehlis commission until it conclusively determines the perpetrators of the crime.

"I look forward to the full cooperation by the government of Syria in substance as well as form," Straw retorted. "But I have to say after what I've heard, I'm not holding my breath."

The three co-sponsors had to drop the explicit threat of economic sanctions to win unanimous support for the resolution at a rare meeting of the foreign ministers from most of the council's 15 members. Russia, China, Brazil and others had strongly opposed the sanctions threat.

"I would like to say that the message of the Security Council is particularly clear: Syria must cooperate with the Security Council otherwise there will be consequences," France's Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said. "Justice shall prevail."

The resolution marked the culmination of Security Council pressure for Syria to release its grip on its tiny neighbor in the months since Hariri's assassination.

Syria controlled Lebanon for nearly 30 years with a military presence of thousands — and at times tens of thousands — of troops. But Hariri's assassination brought massive anti-Syrian protests by Lebanese coupled with intense international pressure that forced Assad to withdraw all of his troops last spring, just months after the killing.