[LCM Articles] Highlights of US-French Draft on Hariri

[Loai Naamani]

FACTBOX - Highlights of U.S.-French draft on Hariri 

26 Oct 2005
Source: Reuters 

The United States and France circulated a draft U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at pressuring Syria to comply with a U.N.
probe on the Feb. 14 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut. No date is set for a vote on the text,
which is bound to be amended by council members. 

The council had approved a request from Lebanon that a U.N. commission, headed by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, investigate the
murder. He is to complete his work by Dec. 14 Following are the main points: 

-- The draft threatens to consider "further measures," such as economic sanctions, if Syria does not comply with the demands of the
investigators. 

-- To avoid consideration of sanctions, Syria must cooperate with the Mehlis commission and detain officials or others suspected of
having been involved "in this terrorist act."

-- Syria also must allow suspects to be interviewed outside of Syria and without the presence of any other Syrian official. And
Syria has to stop interfering in Lebanese domestic affairs, either directly or indirectly. 

-- The draft says Syrian officials tried to mislead investigation by giving inaccurate or false statements.

-- The draft invokes Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which makes a council resolution mandatory for all U.N. members and lays the
groundwork for sanctions. 

-- The draft puts a ban on travel and a freeze on overseas assets of individuals designated now or in the future as suspects in the
"planning, sponsoring organization or perpetration of this terrorist act." Diplomats said this referred to people already charged by
Lebanon and those Mehlis would name in the future.

-- The draft states the Security Council's willingness to extend the mandate of the commission beyond Dec. 15 if Lebanon requests
it. (Writing by Evelyn Leopold in the United Nations) 

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