Lebanonwire.com | Blair refuses to rule out sanctions against Syria

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October 25, 2005

Blair refuses to rule out sanctions against Syria

LONDON - British Prime Minister Tony Blair refused to rule out sanctions against Syria on Monday, stressing the seriousness of a UN report implicating Syria in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.

"I don't think you rule anything out in going forward," Blair said when questioned about the possibility of sanctions by Sky News television.

Britain is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, which is due to meet October 31 to outline its response to the damning report by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis.

"Any implication of the involvement of Syria or any other country is something the international community has got to treat with the most fundamental seriousness and gravity, because it calls into question the whole of our relationship not just with that country - but our ability to make sure the rule of law is enforced internationally," Blair told Sky News.

"You can't get any more serious than trying to destroy the democracy of another country by terrorism," he added.

US President George W. Bush has also called the report "deeply disturbing" while Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Syria had to be held accountable for its "involvement".

Britain's Foreign Minister Jack Straw told the foreign affairs committee in Parliament that UN members would condemn murder of political opponents.

"You cannot have a member of the United Nations, which has subscribed to the Charter on Human Rights and much else besides, deciding that the way it resolves its problems is having people, at least at a pretty senior level, complicit in the murder of political opponents," Straw said.

"It is regarded by the other members of the United Nations as indefensible. It is simply intolerable," he added.

But Straw denied ever suggesting the United States could take military action against Syria, adding that to his knowledge Washington had never considered such action.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Syrians rallied in a massive show of support for the regime, which has denied any involvement in the February bomb blast that killed Hariri and 20 others on the Beirut seafront.