UN Security Council Demands Syrian Cooperation in Hariri Killing

Anti-French feeling in the US must have dropped a few notches after Paris joined London and Washington in sponsoring a resolution at the UN Security Council demanding that Syria cooperates fully in the investigation into the Hariri assassination. The Ba’athist regime of Bashar al Assad is now in the cross-hairs, and it will take intense diplomacy, deep wisdom and some luck to prevent large scale ugliness.

The Security Council was pretty grim in its approach. Eleven of the 15 council members, and all five veto holders, were represented at the meeting by their foreign ministers, a sign of seriousness squared. And the resolution passed 15-0. While the Russians insisted on watering down the threat of economic sanctions (they get a seat on a sanctions subcommittee to protect their sort-of client), they were less-than-dogmatic about the general tone. Syria needs to cooperate is the message.

However, Syria claims it is being falsely accused – as if nothing that has happened in Lebanon for the last 30 years had anything to do with Damascus despite thousands of Syrian troops in the country. Syria's Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa, who has a career in speculative fiction ahead of him or a serious LSD problem, hallucinated that just because Syria’s troops were in Lebanon when Mr. Hariri was murdered doesn’t mean they were involved. “We would have to point out accusations at the US security organs as having been aware of terrorist attacks that were perpetrated in 9-11-2001.” Yes, and the British Air Force was responsible for the bombing of Coventry while the Japanese military nuked Hiroshima.

It is Iraq that is at the core of this unpleasantness. The neo-cons in the Bush administration, who still think they are winning hearts and minds in Baghdad all evidence to the contrary, worry that Syria is offering the anti-US forces sanctuary. Moreover, Syria remains the one front-line state that can damage Israel, their beloved. They are spoiling for a fight, and the Hariri assassination has provided a pretext for an attack.

The war is not yet a done deal. Syria has until December 15 to comply with the resolution. And the Russians may still prevail to impose watered down sanctions. But ominously, the resolution doesn’t demand economic sanctions; rather the Security Council “could consider further action.” The White House could press for military action under this resolution, and the Russians will have shot themselves in the foot.

The world has been down this road before – in the run up to the attack on Iraq. This may be a good time to ask the neo cons, does anyone have a plan for the occupation and reconstruction of Syria? There is one point of difference. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, while Mr. Hariri is truly dead.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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