Nations threaten Syria with sanctions
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-26 09:08

If Syria does not fully cooperate with the investigation, the draft says the council intends to consider "further measures," including sanctions, "to ensure compliance by Syria."

In an appearance before the council earlier Tuesday, Mehlis urged Syria to help "fill in the gaps" about who orchestrated the car bombing that killed Hariri and 20 other people in Beirut.

"I cannot send 500 investigators, which I do not have, to Syria to look for documents because I do not know where I would find them," he told reporters after emerging from the council meeting. "It would be a good idea if the Syrian authorities made an extra effort by themselves."

France's Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere said: "We should not tolerate anything short of full cooperation."

The Security Council could hold a meeting Monday, attended by the 15 members' foreign ministers, to adopt the resolution, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said. Diplomats say the presence of the foreign ministers would give the resolution added weight and increase pressure on Syria.

United Nations (UN) International Independent Investigation Commissioner Detlev Mehlis (L) hands a report detailing the investigation into the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri to Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York, October 20, 2005. [Reuters/file]

Syria has called Mehlis' report biased, politicized and an American plot to take over the region, and is likely to oppose the new draft resolution. Syrian officials and Lebanon's pro-Syrian president, Emile Lahoud, deny they were involved in Hariri's assassination and have insisted they have cooperated fully with Mehlis' probe.

Syria's U.N. Ambassador Fayssal Mekdad told the council on Tuesday that every paragraph in the Mehlis report deserved to be refuted. He criticized Mehlis for accusing Syria before the end of the investigation.

The commission "should not have pointed the finger or cast doubt on anybody," he said. Syria "has cooperated faithfully and sincerely" and will continue to do so, he said.

Under the draft's provisions, Syria would also be required to renounce terrorism and "commit itself definitively to cease all support for all forms of terrorist action and all assistance to terrorist groups and to demonstrate this undertaking through concrete actions."

Mehlis has received an extension of his mandate until Dec. 15, which he told the council offers "yet another opportunity for the Syrian authorities to show greater and meaningful cooperation."

He said Syria has agreed to provide the autopsy report of Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kenaan, who was questioned by investigators and purportedly committed suicide in his office on Oct. 12. Kenaan effectively controlled the Lebanese government for 20 years as Syria's intelligence chief.

Syria said Kenaan committed suicide, but there have been allegations he may have been killed in an attempted cover-up of Syrian involvement in Hariri's killing.

Mehlis also requested stepped up security for his team of 30 investigators from 17 countries.

"The commission has received a number of threats which were deemed, in the assessment of our security personnel, to be credible," he said.