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The U.N. Security Council has approved a resolution demanding that
Syria step up its efforts to investigate its involvement in the
February assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister and Kennedy
School of Government (KSG) benefactor Rafik Hariri.
The resolution is part of a continuing response to a probe
into the circumstances surrounding his death led by prosecutor Detlev
Mehlis, whose report on the topic was released on Oct. 20.
Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies fellow Carol R.
Saivetz said that the U.N. resolution passed because of votes from
Russia and China, which were secured when the explicit threat of
sanctions against Syria was dropped by the U.S. and other council
members.
Saivetz pointed out the differences between U.S. action related to the Hariri probe and past U.S. action towards Iraq.
“The U.S. government—[Secretary of State Condoleeza] Rice—has
differentiated between regime change and behavior change.” she said.
While regime change was the case with regard to Iraq, Saivetz
said behavior change is what the U.S. wants for Syria. This behavior
change would include an increased closure of Syria’s border with Iraq,
an end to Syria’s involvement with the U.S.-designated terrorist group
Hezbollah, and a full withdrawal of Syrian influence from Lebanon.
Syria has announced its own probe into Hariri’s death on
Saturday in response to criticism that it wasn’t investigating the
death. In Lebanon, two brothers, Ahmed and Mahmud Abdel-Al, are in
custody in connection to the killing.
One of the individuals implicated by the U.N. is Assef
Shawkat, who is responsible for military security and is also the
brother-in-law to Syrian President Bashar al Assad.
Joseph A. Pace ’06, a Social Studies concentrator who is
writing his thesis on U.S. foreign policy toward Syria and the Syrian
opposition, said he thinks that Syria will be unable to effectively act
on these charges.
“Assad’s sphere of influence has shrunk to a degree that he
relies on very few people to stay in power,” he said. Asking Syria to
investigate its own top level security officials is “equivalent to
asking a Saudi thief to chop off his own hand.”
Hariri was assassinated when an explosion hit his motorcade
in February. The former prime minister made his fortune in construction
and established the Hariri Foundation in 1979, which helps Lebanese
students study at institutions abroad, including the KSG.
According to the coordinator of educational programs and
public affairs at the foundation, David J. Thompson, Hariri had an
“international perspective” of world affairs, and he believed in
supporting studies that would pursue this perspective. The foundation
helped to set up a chair in political economy at KSG in 1992. The
chair, which is in Hariri’s name, is currently held by Dani Rodrik.
“The family and everyone associated (with Hariri) are eager
to know the truth” regarding Hariri’s death and are eager to see the
full culmination of the U.N. probe, Thompson said.
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