UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- The U.N. Security Council extended Monday the investigation of former Lebanon Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination into Syria, demanding full cooperation of Damascus and of other countries in apprehending suspects and freezing their assets.
The panel of 15 unanimously approved a tough resolution giving the U.N. International Independent Investigation Commission the same rights in Syria it already has in Lebanon investigating the Feb. 14 bomb attack in Beirut on Hariri's motorcade. It threatened "further action" in case of non-compliance.
Meeting at the ministerial level, the council also said the inquiry panel, headed up by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, may determine where and how it interviews Syrians and "insists that Syria not interfere in Lebanese domestic affairs."
The measure calls on Syria to "detain those Syrian officials or individuals whom the commission considers as suspected of involvement in the planning, sponsoring, organizing or perpetrating of" the attack that killed the billionaire businessman and more than 20 other people.
The measure called for such action to assist the investigation and "without prejudice to the ultimate judicial determination of guilt or innocence of any individual."
It also calls on all nations to block entry, except of their own nationals, or transit of all suspects and the freezing of their "financial assets and economic resources."
The council set up a committee to register the individuals concerned, remove anyone who is deemed to be no longer a suspect and approve exceptions such as travel for religious or humanitarian purposes.
The measures in the resolution will stay in place until "all the investigative and judicial proceedings relating to this terrorist attack have been completed" unless the council decides otherwise.
The resolution took note "with extreme concern" of UNIIIC's conclusion that "while the Syrian authorities have cooperated in form but not substance with the commission, several Syrian officials tried to mislead the Commission by giving false or inaccurate information."
It said, "Syria's continued lack of cooperation to the inquiry would constitute a serious violation of its obligations under relevant resolutions," insisting Syria "not interfere in Lebanese domestic affairs, either directly or indirectly, refrain from any attempt aimed at destabilizing Lebanon, and respect scrupulously the sovereignty, territorial integrity, unity and political independence of this country."
The council requested UNIIIC to report back on the progress of its inquiry, including Syria's cooperation by Dec. 15 or earlier if it determins such cooperation does not meet the resolution's requirements, "so that the council, if necessary, could consider further action."
The resolution determined "that any involvement of any state in this terrorist act would constitute a serious violation by that state of its obligations to work to prevent and refrain from supporting terrorism."
The council resolved Syria must detain "those Syrian officials or individuals whom the commission considers as suspected of involvement in the planning, sponsoring, organizing or perpetrating of this terrorist act, and make them fully available to the Commission."
It said, "The commission shall have the authority to determine the location and modalities for interview of Syrian officials and it deems relevant to the inquiry," addressing the problem investigators found of having Syrian officials and otherwise unidentified people attending interviews.
"We were very pleased that this resolution could be adopted unanimously," said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "It sends a very strong signal to Syria of its isolation" from the rest of the international community.
Rice, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, and the foreign ministers of China, Li Zhao-Xing; France, Philippe Douste-Blazy, and Russia, Sergei Lavrov, the veto-wielding five permanent members of the council, led the list of 11 foreign ministers attending the session.
"The Syrian government, seriously and actively worked to break the will of the Lebanese people," Rice said of the assassination allegations in the Mehlis commission's preliminary report delivered earlier this month. "Syria has isolated itself from the international community."
Straw said the Hariri attack recalled "the medieval practice of political assassination."
After all 14 council members delivered remarks, following the vote, representatives of Beirut and Damascus spoke.
But, Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara was remarkable.
He cited the Mehlis commission's finding that because of the far-reaching intelligence operations in Lebanon, of both Beirut and Damascus, it was highly unlikely the Hariri assassination plot could have been carried out without their knowledge.
Because of that, al-Shara said, the same should apply to the intelligence services of Britain, Spain and the United States knowing beforehand about the July 7, March, 11, 2004, and Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, respectively, in London, Madrid, New York, Washington and involving the Pennsylvania plane crash.
Rice said it was an "unbelievable tirade ... which showed that the Syrians were intent on going to some length to discredit the Mehlis investigation after there had been a vote which clearly welcomed the Mehlis investigation, an independent investigation.
"It was a tirade that made the most bizarre connection of what had happened to Rafik Hariri to somehow with the U.S. government position on Sept. 11, the British position at the time of the July 7 bombings and the Spanish position at the time of the March bombings," she said.
"At one point Shara said there had been kind of a strange presentation, well this was truly a strange presentation," the secretary-added. "I would note that Shara himself has been noted by the Mehlis Commission of having not cooperated and in fact having provided false statements through his ministry's letter to the commission."
In its interim report earlier this month the commission determined that "converging evidence" pointed at both Lebanese and Syrian involvement in the attack and said a letter from Shara proved to contain what proved to be false information.
The council resolution endorsed U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's extension of the commission's mandate until Dec. 15 and decided to extend it further if so recommended by the commission and requested by the Lebanese Government.
The assassination led to renewed calls for the withdrawal of all Syrian troops and intelligence agents who had been in Lebanon since the early stages of the country's 1975-1990 civil war.
The United Nations reported Syrian troops were withdrawn by this past April although because of the clandestine nature of intelligence apparatus it could not say with certainty all intelligence operatives had been removed.
