US actions against Syria on UN assassination investigation report
Syria-Lebanon-USA, Politics, 10/25/2005

In statements on the board of the plane which took her to Canada, the US secretary of state Condaleezza Rice renewed her call for a strong action against Syria during the coming meeting for the UN Security Council on October 31st.

On the type of measures the UN may take against Syria, Rice said "there are many options on the table."

The past hours witnessed a sort of political debate between several countries in an attempt to influence the position of the UN Security Council. In this regard, France announced it prefers the issuance of a UN resolution demanding Syria to fully collaborate with the investigation committee, considering that this will be the last opportunity for Damascus before imposing sanctions on it, according to what the US wants.

In Beirut, the Lebanese foreign minister Fawzi Salloukh said that the director general of the Lebanese foreign ministry Butrous Asaker will represent his country at the UN Security Council meeting in which the UN report will be discussed.

Meantime, here is what the Department Of State spokesman, Sean McCormack, said yesterday about the US efforts against Syria when questioned by reporters:
QUESTION:Ê France is saying that it wants to wait until the final Mehlis report before it will support sanctions, but the U.S. and France have both said that they're on the same page.Ê So does that mean that also the U.S. wants to wait until the final report is out before you consider sanctions against Syria?

MCCORMACK:Ê I think where we are right now in terms of the Mehlis report, let me sort of walk you through how I see the next week unfolding.Ê Tomorrow, Mr. Mehlis is going to be presenting his report to the Security Council.Ê There will be a discussion at the level of permanent representative, at the level of ambassador, in the Security Council, at which they will start the formal multilateral discussion of Mr. Mehlis' report.

There have already been a number of discussions on a bilateral basis among members of the Security Council.Ê The Secretary, of course, had an opportunity to discuss this issue at length with Foreign Secretary Straw over the weekend during the visit to Alabama.Ê After tomorrow, I expect those consultations both up in New York and between capitals to continue.

Right now, what we are discussing and working towards, although a final date has not yet been set, is for a ministerial level meeting of the Security Council a week from today, on the 31st of October.Ê And at that point, I think the ministers will have an opportunity to discuss what course of action to take.Ê I think that certainly given the gravity of what we have seen in the Mehlis report, which at the very least includes Syria's non-cooperation with the Mehlis investigation and also includes potential Syrian provision of false information to the Mehlis investigators as well as the report pointing to potential high-level Syrian implication in the assassination of a former prime minister of another state, this is a subject and a report worthy of discussion at the ministerial level.

So that's at this point how we see the next week unfolding.Ê There's going to be a lot of diplomacy, a lot of discussion about this topic.

QUESTION:Ê You said a discussion -- Monday?

QUESTION:Ê You didn't answer my question.Ê Are France and the U.S. still on the same page or does the U.S. -- at this point, they're saying that they want to wait until the final report.Ê Does the U.S. -- are you leaning towards waiting until the final report?

MCCORMACK:Ê Well, at this point, I think what everybody is discussing is a resolution.Ê And I think that you have, certainly, you have seen Foreign Secretary Straw talk about a resolution.Ê I think that that is the way the Security Council acts.Ê And I think that that is, you know -- that is really the central focus of the discussions now.Ê Now in terms of what might be included in a potential resolution, again, first we want to have the meeting tomorrow at which you have the ambassadors be able to receive the report in a formal discussion in the Security Council from Mr. Mehlis and then you want to have a discussion about what might be included in a potential resolution that would -- and that discussion would unfold, I would expect, over the coming days.Ê Now, I'm not going to prejudge what may or may not be a potential resolution.Ê I think, you know, those will be discussions to be had through diplomatic channels, as I think is appropriate.

QUESTION:Ê I don't mean .., but you all have the report already, don't you?

MCCORMACK:Ê We do.Ê But we have not had an opportunity .. in a formal sense in the Security Council to have a discussion of it and for Mr. Mehlis to be able to have a give and take with the members of the Security Council.Ê Yes.Ê But we do all have the report, yes, and it's quite troubling, I think.

QUESTION:Ê Follow up onto the timeline.Ê Do -- would you anticipate the ministerial level meeting which you describe expecting to be a week from today to put a resolution out then?

MCCORMACK:Ê At this point --

QUESTION:Ê Or would that be more talking?

MCCORMACK:Ê At this point .. I think I'm going to stick with the fact that 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.Ê Well, 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.Ê I'm not going to prejudge anything at this point.

QUESTION:Ê Do you happen to have anything current on contact or discussion with the Syrians?Ê They had a news conference Friday, and of course they reject everything in this.Ê It's all part of U.S. unhappiness with their position on the Iraq war, that the material here is heavily dependent on one person who couldn't be every place that he said to have been, that it's a political document.Ê There was something else -- that it couldn't stand up in a court of law.

I mean, I don't want to try even to take you to step -- through all their accusations, but have they carried this -- brought this to the U.S. in a formal way?

MCCORMACK:Ê I'm not aware of any formal diplomatic representation to us in particular.. as you know, our -- we have called back our Ambassador; she has not returned to Damascus.Ê We do have an embassy there.Ê I think the Syrian Government needs to focus on cooperation with the UN Security Council Resolution 1595, which of course is the resolution that led to the Mehlis investigation.

The Mehlis report is very troubling and it was -- it outlines and it details, I think in great detail, Syria's non-cooperation with Mr. Mehlis and his investigation and a provision in one instance that I have read in the report of actually providing false information to the investigation.Ê So these are very serious matters that Syria needs to deal with. They need to address them.Ê This is a matter of intense interest among the international community.Ê I think the international community is watching very closely Syria's actions and their ongoing cooperation or lack thereof with Mr. Mehlis' investigation.Ê Secretary General Annan has extended the mandate for that investigation to December 15th, I believe.

So all of these topics will be a subject of discussion both between capitals but also in the Security Council.

QUESTION:Ê Well, the extension of the investigation doesn't preclude action, does it, by --

MCCORMACK:Ê That's correct.Ê Action in terms of --

QUESTION:Ê Security Council --

MCCORMACK:Ê Diplomatic actions.Ê Yes, yes.

QUESTION:Ê just to follow up with two questions on that.Ê Are you anticipating any action tomorrow from the perm reps, maybe a President's statement, something to respond to this?

MCCORMACK:Ê I think at this point .. that is more a meeting for a formal presentation of the report and a discussion that the Security Council can have with Mr. Mehlis in terms of his report and what he found at this point in his investigations.

QUESTION:Ê So you don't expect any statement of response to --

MCCORMACK:Ê Again, I'm not going to -- I'm not going to prejudge what the Council may decide to do at that point, but I expect that it will be more of a discussion.

QUESTION:Ê Also, the second thing is that the Dutch Foreign Minister, when he came out from the Secretary, said that they did discuss, obviously, this case and there was some discussion of moving some of the proceedings to The Hague, sort of a Lockerbie sort of thing and maybe trying some of the suspects in The Hague.Ê Is this something that the Secretary is favoring, is looking at?

MCCORMACK:Ê Well, I think at this point .. what we are concerned with is that the Lebanese people and the international community have confidence that whatever the results and whatever the findings of this report, wherever it may lead, that those responsible for this assassination are held to account.

Now, I think it's too early to talk about what form that may take.Ê The investigation is still ongoing.Ê But I think the Lebanese people and the Lebanese Government and the international community can be assured that we as well as others want to see justice be done in this case.Ê And whatever the forum or format, we believe that the Lebanese people need to have a very heavy input to whatever judicial process there is.Ê So I think the international community is going to be working with the Lebanese Government in the weeks and months ahead on this very question, but I don't -- at this point I don't think we're going to try to prejudge where those discussions may lead.

QUESTION:Ê Can you at least confirm that this was discussed between the Secretary and the Dutch Foreign Minister, because that's what he said?Ê I mean, the possibility of --

MCCORMACK:Ê What I will say is that they did discuss the issue of, ultimately, those responsible for this act must face justice in some kind of judicial procedure.

Previous Stories:
  Nasrullah does not oppose investigation extension, Sinoura calls Lahoud to resign   (10/24/2005)
  Senior Lebanese officials criticize Mehlis report   (10/24/2005)
  Syria denounces statement of Saad al-Hariri   (10/24/2005)
  Bush asks urgent move against Syria on Hariri assassination   (10/22/2005)
  Ambassador says threats are due to Syria's solid stances   (10/20/2005)
  Lebanese clergyman criticizes US accusations against Syria   (10/18/2005)
  Lebanese clergyman criticizes US accusations against Syria   (10/18/2005)
  US voiced support to Lebanese premier, ignoring the President   (10/13/2005)
  Welsh is tomorrow in Beirut   (10/11/2005)

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