DOHA, 31 October 2005 — Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said yesterday he feared the United Nations would “unfairly” punish his country as the world body prepares to issue a resolution threatening sanctions against Damascus. “Some quarters within the Security Council are trying to turn it into a tribunal whereby Chapter VII (of the UN charter) would be unfairly applied against Syria,” Muallem told reporters after arriving in Qatar from Saudi Arabia.
He described as “dangerous” a resolution which the Security Council is expected to pass today threatening sanctions against Syria to force it to cooperate with a UN probe which has already implicated Damascus in the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
“This is a dangerous resolution, prepared a month before release of the Mehlis report during meetings in Paris, London and Washington,” Muallem said.
The United States had led calls for Syria to be held “accountable” for its alleged role in last February’s assassination of Hariri after the UN inquiry led by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis accused top Syrian officials of organizing the crime and lambasted a lack of cooperation from Damascus.
The resolution Syria faces at the Security Council calls for Damascus to detain suspected nationals and urges states to impose a travel ban and a freeze of assets on all individuals designated as suspects.
But the proposed resolution, drafted by the United States and France, also has a provision which allows the council to decide what measures other than the use of force may be used to assure compliance, such as economic and diplomatic sanctions.
Syria was, meanwhile, trying to stave off the looming threat of sanctions. Damascus announced on Saturday that it was launching its own investigation into Hariri’s killing.
A decree from President Bashar said that the probe would be working in conjunction with a UN inquiry which has already linked Syrian security officials with the killing of Hariri in a Feb. 14 Beirut bomb blast.
“The special Syrian commission will cooperate with the commission of inquiry of the United Nations and with the Lebanese judicial authorities,” the state news agency SANA said.
