Bush calls for UN meeting on Hariri assassination
22/10/2005 - 09:21:31US president George Bush called on the United Nations to convene a session as soon as possible to deal with a UN report implicating Syrian officials in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.
“The report strongly suggests that the politically-motivated assassination could not have taken place without Syrian involvement,” Bush said after helping dedicate a new pavilion at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Southern California, last night.
The UN investigative report, which Bush called “deeply disturbing”, established a link between high-ranking Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies in Hariri’s murder on February 14 in Beirut.
The report, issued to members of the UN Security Council, did not implicate Syrian president Bashar Assad directly, but said his government did not co-operate with the inquiry.
Bush said he called US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and instructed her to call on the United Nations to convene a session “as quickly as possible to deal with this very serious matter”.
The US president was not specific about what steps the international community should take to make sure Syria was held accountable. He said the US has started talking to UN officials and Arab governments about what steps to take.
“Today a serious report came out that requires the world to look at very carefully and respond accordingly,” Bush said.
Syrian ambassador Imad Moustapha said the accusations were baseless and flagrantly political.
The report presented no substantive evidence that could be used in a court of law, Moustapha said: “It will only help fuel anti-American sentiment around the world.”
Moustapha blamed the Bush administration, saying “it has never forgiven Syria for its opposition to the war in Iraq”.
Rice, on a trip with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, said the international community must find a way to hold Syrian authorities accountable.
She refused to discuss the next steps, beyond saying that some kind of international mechanism must be established. “Accountability is going to be very important for the international community,” she said.
State Department spokesman Adam Ereli refused to say what course of action the US might take. But when asked if military force would be used against Syria, he said: “We are seeking a diplomatic solution to this problem.”
Chief investigator Detlev Mehlis’ exhaustive UN report linked the brother-in-law of Syria’s president to the February 14 car bomb that killed Hariri and 20 others, and said Lebanese intelligence officials helped organise it.
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