The United Nations Security Council, at the behest of the United Station, France, and Britain, adopted a resolution by unanimous consent against Syria in order to compel the rogue government to cooperate with the Mehlis investigation and turn over an officials involved.

The UN Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution demanding Syria’s full cooperation with a United Nations investigation into the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. The measure threatens “further action” against Syria in the event of noncompliance, which is weaker than initial language warning of sanctions. But sponsors of the measure say it shows Syria’s increasing isolation.

Washington, 31 October 2005 (RFE/RL) — The Security Council resolution passed today calls on Syria to cooperate unconditionally with the UN investigation into Rafiq Hariri’s killing in February.

The measure says Syrian leaders must take into custody and make available to UN investigators suspects in the killing. This places pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad because UN investigators want to question his brother and brother-in-law in the case.

The unanimous vote by the 15-member council in New York included the participation of 12 foreign-minister-level officials. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Security Council the resolution should signal to Syria the gravity of its situation.

“With our decision today we show that Syria has isolated itself from the international community through its false statements, its support for terrorism, its interference in the affairs of its neighbors and its destabilizing behavior in the Middle East. Now the Syrian government needs to make a strategic decision to fundamentally change its behavior,” Rice said.

The United States, Great Britain, and France, which sponsored the resolution, removed language threatening Syria with possible sanctions if it failed to cooperate. The softer language was urged by permanent council members China and Russia.

That Bashar’s brother-in-law and younger brother were named in the report makes cooperation all the more difficult. Also, it will be interesting to see if Mehlis wants to question Bashar himself in the investigation, as it is apparent at this point that the operation to assassinate Rafik Hariri involved everyone at the top of the regime.

Of course, I don’t believe for a second that the government will ever truly cooperate or that it has a way out of this. If the world were truly united in its stand against Syria, then there would be no problem with isolating its government and pushing it toward regime change. But the world isn’t united on this issue, and that’s why, whether Syria cooperates or not, what China and Russia do in terms of its actions at the Security Council will be more important. Should the Mehlis investigation conclude in December and implicate every last member of the Syrian government, they can still veto any resolution against it. And given various arms deals, the problems Syria causes for the United States, and the general intrusion of the west into the Middle East and Central Asia, the two countries might feel they have every incentive to do so. In fact, what would be even more worrying would be a united stand by Russia and China at a time when there’s the perfect opportunity to get rid of one of the worst dictators on the planet.