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Security Council Split Over Syria

Not surprisingly, obstructionist nations in the United Nations Security Council are resisting U.S. and European pressure to pass a resolution to compel Syria to cooperate fully with the U.N. investigation into former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri`s murder. The recent draft of the U.N. investigation finding`s indicates strong, high-level Syrian involvement in the February 14 murder-by-bombing in Beirut which killed 22 others in addition to Hariri.

The Bush Administration has called a meeting at the foreign ministerial level to be held in New York on October 31 made up of the 15 members of the U.N. Security Council to vote on a final version of a draft resolution against Syria, according to the U.S. State Department the meeting will also serve to rally support for Lebanon`s attempts to bring Hariri`s killers to justice.

"We have here an opportunity to do justice with an independent inquiry," France`s Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Monday. "Let`s go to the end. If we need to make it longer, let`s do it, and afterwards let`s see what the consequences should be, including on the question of sanctions."