As Syria asked UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Wednesday to intervene and help broker a âcooperation protocolâ between Damascus and the probe team into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, Paris signaled âtime was running outâ for President Bashar al Assad. A high-ranking French official told Asharq al Awsat UN investigator Detlev Mehlis âmight not wait until 15 Decemberâ to present his findings to the Security Council and inform it the Syrian authorities have not cooperated with the probe and that he would be taking the necessary steps in that regard. France âwants the Syrian President to stop his delaying tactics⊠the interest of Syria requires him to cooperate and to cut off the rotten branches even if this is a painful operationâ, in reference to the request by Mehlis to question six officials in Syria including the presidentâs brother in law, Asef Shawkat. He described the Syrian regimeâs behavior as âcommitting mass suicideâ by âletting time pass and playing tricksâ on Mehlis and on the Security Council and ârefusing to cooperateâ to uncover the truth about who killed Hariri on 14 February. He blamed Assad for âputting forward proposals he knew in advance it would be difficult to consider.â
The French source warned that Paris, Washington and the international community would not hesitate to ask the Security Council to impose sanctions on Damascus if they discovered that âthe final warningâ given to the Syrian authorities with the adoption of Resolution 1636 âwas not taken seriouslyâ.
On French policy regarding Lebanon and Syria, the source said Paris âunderstood the fears of Saudi Arabia and Egypt and other countries which did not want to see a new conflict emerge adjacent to Iraq and this is also one of our concerns.â Syria, however, âshould not rely on this fear to refuse to actâ and should realize that âno other options are available except real cooperationâ with the UN probe team. The source rejected Syrian protestations that the investigation was an excuse and that the target was the regime in Damascus. In fact, the regimeâs reservations were âthe excuse of someone who did not want to actâ.