Washington – Adopting a fast-paced strategy, the Bush administration is gathering support for a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding Syria’s cooperation in an investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The target date for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and foreign ministers to agree on a resolution is Monday.
“Everybody thinks that certainly a resolution would be appropriate with respect to this report, at least in the initial discussions that we have had among our close allies,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
The report on the investigation, distributed last week by U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis, a German prosecutor, concluded Hariri could not have been assassinated without the collusion of top Syrian intelligence officials. Twenty other people also died in the car bombing in February in Beirut.
Syria has hotly disputed the findings as politically motivated and stemming from U.S. displeasure with its opposition to the war in Iraq. Civil servants and students massed in the streets of Damascus on Monday to protest the report.
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton and other Security Council ambassadors are due to meet today. Punitive economic measures have not been ruled out.
“Let’s see how the diplomacy unfolds over the coming week or so and what action at the ministerial level the ministers decide to take,” McCormack said.
Bolton said in New York, “We will certainly insist on Syrian cooperation. This is true-confessions time for the government of Syria. No more obstruction. No more half-measures.”
White House spokesman Scott McClellan called the report “very troubling” and said President Bush had directed Rice to arrange a council meeting at the earliest possible date.
“The Security Council needs to take it up at a high level,” McClellan said.
The Bush administration was quickly backed by Britain, its closest partner. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw accompanied Rice last weekend on a homecoming trip to Alabama and discussed strategy with her.
