Chirac calls Damascus to collaborate with UN investigator, Rice to isolate it
The French President Jacques Chirac renewed his call on Damascus to cooperate with the UN investigation committee into the assassination of the former Lebanese Prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri.
For the French Presidency, Jerome Bonavon said that Chirac denied on Monday during his meeting with his Yemeni peer Ali Abdullah Saleh that the move of France and the international community is directed unanimously against Syria or its regime.
Bonavone added that this move aims at imposing the law after the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri. A matter which requires Syria's total cooperation with the UN investigators, and on the other hand to achieve Lebanon's full sovereignty. This makes it imperative to honor articles of UN Security Council resolution 1559.
Menatime, the US Secretary Of State continued the campaign she had started against Syria since her arrival in the region five days ago, warning Damascus that it will be isolated if it does not cooperate with the UN investigation committee.
Condoleezza Rice said on Monday in a joint press conference in Ramullah with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that Damascus's cooperation with the investigation committee led by Detlive Mehlis is "very important." She added that "it is very important for Syria to cooperate" with the UN investigators, adding that rejection of the Syrian government to cooperate increases its isolation.
In London, the banned Muslim Brothers group, banned in Syria, issued a statement in which it called on the government to collaborate with Mehlis committee in being a "national interest."
The group explained that its demands result from the feeling that "Syria today is endangered, regardless to the seriousness of the debated pretexts to interfere in its own affairs."
It considered that the speech delivered by the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday as confirming that the regime has not realized the danger besieging the homeland, nor its volume, and requirements, as well as consequences."
