The recent United Nations report linking key Syrian officials to the Valentine’s Day assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri demands immediate action. Syria should detain those suspected of involvement in the murder of Hariri and 20 others and cooperate with a U.N. probe or face sanctions.
Hariri was an outspoken opponent of Syrian control of Lebanon. The U.N.’s report presented strong evidence that Syria was involved in plotting Hariri’s murder (in a car bomb explosion) and that it was carried out with the help of top Syrian and Lebanese security forces. It cites multiple witnesses, documents and recordings of conversations.
The final report omits some names, but an earlier version implicated Syrian President Bashar Assad’s brother, Maher Assad, a brother-in-law and a close friend. The plotters met over several months, often in the house of the brother-in-law, Gen. Asef Shawkat, who served as Syria’s military intelligence chief, the report said.
President Assad has denied that his government was involved while promising that any Syrian accused will face trial if “proved by concrete evidence.” But the chief U.N. investigator, Detlev Mehlis, says Syria has not fully cooperated with the U.N. investigation and has called on Syrian officials to “fill in the gaps” about who orchestrated the bombing.
In a draft resolution this week, the U.S., France and Britain insisted that Syria make suspects and witnesses “fully and unconditionally available” to the U.N. investigating commission. The resolution rightly says questioning must be allowed “outside Syria and/or outside the presence of any other Syrian official.”
The United States has good reason to pressure Assad, who succeeded his father in 2000. Syria has been an active entry point for funneling foreign fighters into Iraq, where Assad has supported Sunni insurgents. Training camps for Islamic radicals are believed to exist in parts of Syria.
There is precedent for the U.N. to take strong action, and the Security Council should do so Monday when the 15 member countries plus Syria meet in special session. The U.N. levied sanctions against Libya when government operatives were linked to the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Scotland, and the pressure ultimately resulted in Libya accepting responsibility and turning over two officials. International pressure should be brought on Syria. The Hariri assassination should not go unpunished.
