U.S. Ratchets Up Pressure on Syria In Hariri Probe
Answers Are Sought in Death Of Ex-Lebanese Premier; Threat of Sanctions Looms

By Neil King Jr.
January 12, 2006
The Wall Street Journal
Original Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113702976131944406.html
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration stepped up pressure on Syria to cooperate with a United Nations inquiry into the killing of a prominent Lebanese politician, threatening to bring Damascus before the world body for international censure.
In an unusually blunt statement, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. has grave and continuing concerns about Syria's destabilizing behavior and sponsorship of terrorism. Washington, she said, would bring Syria back before the U.N. Security Council if Damascus continues to obstruct the probe into the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
U.S. officials declined to specify what particular action the U.S. might pursue, but suggested the threat of some form of economic sanctions would be the logical next step. The U.S. also is vowing to seek economic sanctions within the U.N. against Iran because of its nuclear program.
Administration officials said Ms. Rice's statement was timed to underscore U.S. seriousness on the Syria front, but also to play off recent developments that pointed more strongly toward Syrian involvement in the Hariri killing as well as rifts within Syrian President Bashar Assad's government.
The U.S. ultimatum comes as former Syrian Vice President Abdul-Halim Khaddam, now in exile in Paris, has openly accused Mr. Assad of ordering the assassination of Mr. Hariri, a powerful critic of Syria's deep involvement in Lebanese affairs. Mr. Khaddam said in a French radio interview Tuesday that it is his ultimate conviction that Mr. Assad personally directed the February truck bombing of Mr. Hariri's motorcade in Beirut.
The U.S. has supported a push by U.N. investigators to interview Mr. Assad. Mr. Khaddam, a veteran Ba'ath Party official who was forced out of office in June, met with the U.N. team last week in Paris.
Ms. Rice, in her statement, suggested that the U.S. suspects Syrian involvement in two other prominent assassinations in Lebanon late last year, one of a prominent journalist and the other of a member of the Lebanese Parliament. Sean McCormack, a State Department spokesman, said the U.S. couldn't connect the dots between Damascus and the most recent killings, but there is certainly very clearly an attempt on the part of some to create this atmosphere of fear and violence in Lebanon.
The U.S., Britain and France tried last year to persuade the other two permanent Security Council members, Russia and China, to include the threat of at least targeted sanctions in a resolution demanding Syrian cooperation in the Hariri killing. Syria withdrew thousands of troops it had stationed in Lebanon for decades amid international pressure following the incident.