SYRIA: The UN Security Council voted unanimously yesterday for a resolution demanding that Syria co-operate with a UN investigation into the death of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri or face possible "further action".
The United States, France and Britain sponsored the measure in response to a tough report earlier this month by a UN commission that said Syrian security forces and its Lebanese allies organised the bombing that killed Mr Hariri and 21 others in Beirut on February 14th.
The report, by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, who heads the UN investigation, also accused Syria of lack of co-operation.
Some 11 foreign ministers or their deputies among the 15 Security Council members travelled to New York for the meeting, underlying the importance of the vote.
"With our decision today we show that Syria has isolated itself from the international community through its false statements, its support for terrorism, its interference in the affairs of its neighbours and its destabilising behaviour in the Middle East," US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said.
The resolution was adopted 15-0 after the principal drafters, the United States and France, agreed to delete a specific reference to economic sanctions. Instead the resolution would consider possible unspecified "further action" if Syria did not comply.
Russia, China and Algeria had objected to an outright threat of sanctions and might have abstained.
The measure demands Syria co-operate "unconditionally" with the UN inquiry, and orders Damascus to take into custody and make available to UN investigators people suspected of involvement in the killing.
It also calls for a financial freeze and travel ban on individual suspects to be named by the UN commission or the Lebanese government. But any Security Council member can object to a name on such a list.
China's foreign minister Li Zhaoxing spoke against any "wilful" use of sanctions and noted Mr Mehlis would continue investigating until at least December 15th.
"Under such circumstances it is inappropriate for the council to prejudge the outcome of the investigation and to threaten to impose sanctions," he said.
Mr Hariri's killing led Syria to pull out its troops from Lebanon after three decades and has put increasing pressure on Lebanon's pro-Syrian president Émile Lahoud to resign.