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Last Updated: Feb 18th, 2008 - 14:39:01 |
(Middle East Online) UNITED NATIONS - The UN Security Council on Thursday kept up pressure on Syria by unanimously endorsing a six-month extension of the UN investigation of the murder of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri and renewing its call for Damascus' full cooperation with the probe.
The resolution passed by the 15-member council also authorized technical assistance to Lebanon from the inquiry commission led by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis to help it probe recent murders of anti-Syrian politicians.
It also asked UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in consultations with the commission and Lebanon "to present recommendations to expand the mandate of the commission to include investigations of those other attacks," including Monday's car bombing in Beirut, which killed prominent lawmaker Gibran Tueni.
The text, co-sponsored by Britain, France and the United States, "decides, as recommended by the (Mehlis) commission and requested by the Lebanese government, to extend the mandate of the commission ... initially until 15 June 2006."
It also underscored Syria's obligation and commitment to cooperate fully and unconditionally with the commission, and specifically demands that Syria responds unambiguously and immediately" to questions raised by UN investigators and that "it implements without delay any future request of the commission".
It directed the commission to report to the council on the progress of the inquiry every three months, "including on the cooperation received from the Syrian authorities".
The resolution acknowledged Lebanon's request for an international tribunal to try those found responsible for the Hariri murder last February and for an international probe into a dozen bombings that targeted anti-Syrian critics over the past year.
Earlier Thursday Algeria's UN envoy Abdallah Baali made it clear that he backed Lebanon's request for an international probe into the bombings targeting anti-Syrian critics, but indicated he did not want them linked to the Hariri murder probe.
Algeria and Russia appeared keen to avoid giving the impression that, in the absence of any compelling evidence, Syria is responsible for those attacks.
Speaking just before the council vote, US ambassador to the UN John Bolton said the vote "sends a strong signal to Syria that we still require full and unconditional compliance with the obligation of (an) earlier (council) resolution to cooperate with the Mehlis commission. It's clear they (Syrians) have not yet provided that cooperation."
"We are very happy that this important resolution has been adopted unanimously," said France's UN envoy Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, whose country drafted the text.
Russia's UN envoy Andrei Denisov noted that he had offered amendments to the text put forward by the three Western co-sponsors "to give it a more balanced nature."
"We continue to oppose unwarranted pressure" on Syria, he said, pointing out that Damascus had begun cooperating with the Mehlis commission.
Denisov said the Security Council would continue to monitor "how the Syrian side meets its obligations and if necessary assist it."
"Many aspects that certain parties wanted to impose were not included' in the resolution, Syria's UN ambassador Fayssal Mekdad told reporters. "This shows that Syria has many friends in the council."
He again pledged full Syrian cooperation with the probe of the Hariri murder.
"We feel it is our self-imposed duty to cooperate fully ... We are fully confident that Syria is innocent," he added, restating Damascus's condemnations of all the recent assassinations in Lebanon.
Meanwhile in an interview with CNN, Mehlis, the outgoing chief of the UN inquiry panel, said there was an obvious link between the spate of assassinations in Lebanon over the past year.
"We will have to look and we are looking for links between the assassinations as, pretty obviously, there are links between all these assassinations that happened after the death of Hariri," he said.
His latest report released Monday cited fresh evidence suggesting that Syrian officers were implicated.
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