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Damascus to feel the heat

The new United Nations report linking top Syrian officials, including family members of Syrian President Bashar Assad, to the killing of Lebanon`s leading reformer eight months ago has sparked a "transformation" in how the world is willing to deal with Damascus. A senior U.S. policymaker who spoke on the condition of anonymity has said "Out of tragedy comes an extraordinary strategic opportunity. This murder changed everything." Former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri was killed on February 14 of this year.

The United States hopes to use such an opportunity provided by the UN report to get Syria to take the kind of steps that Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi was compelled to take after Libyan agents were linked to the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Washington is also talking with European allies about how to help Lebanon pursue the prosecution of those charged in the slaying of Hariri.

A State Department spokesman said that Syria must end attempts to destabilize neighbors and undercut their aspirations, "whether that be the Lebanese people for independent sovereignty, whether it be the Palestinians for an independent state that lives in peace with Israel, whether it be for the Iraqis who are trying to develop a peaceful and stable democracy but are having to fight a determined but unprincipled insurgency, or whether it be for Turkey."