SYRIA: Syria is expected to face censure next week in resolutions to be tabled before the UN Security Council over its alleged involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri and the arming of Palestinian militias in Lebanon.
France is circulating a text dealing with the killing of Mr Hariri while the US is seeking approval of a second resolution demanding full implementation of resolution 1559, which called on Damascus to cease meddling in Lebanese affairs.
A report presented to the council on Thursday revealed that senior Syrian security officials had colluded with their Lebanese counterparts in the car-bomb murder last February of Mr Hariri and 20 others.
President George Bush said the report was "deeply disturbing" and urged the UN to take up the matter as quickly as possible.
He said the report suggested the Hariri assassination "could not have taken place" without Syrian involvement.
While the report stopped short of implicating Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, and his immediate circle, it accused Damascus of failing to extend full co-operation to the team of 30 investigators from 17 countries headed by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis.
Syria's foreign minister, Farouk al-Sharaa, and his deputy, Walid Muallem, were accused of trying to mislead the investigators by making false statements.
In an attempt to gather as much information as possible on the murder, the investigation is being extended until December 15th. Damascus is to be asked to permit witnesses to travel unaccompanied outside Syria to be interviewed by the team.
Among those the investigators may wish to interrogate further is Asef Shawkat, the brother-in-law of President Assad. Gen Shawkat was appointed head of military security a few days after the murder. If his involvement is established, the Syrian regime could suffer serious economic and diplomatic sanctions under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.
The report states that "a group with extensive organisation and considerable resources and capabilities" carried out the assassination after many months of planning. This group included four key Lebanese intelligence figures, including Mustafa Hamdan, commander of the presidential guard, who seems to have been a central figure in the conspiracy.
Mr Hariri's movements were monitored in the months leading to the assassination and, on the day it occurred, mobile-phone records show that his convoy was being tracked as it drove from the centre of Beirut to St George's Bay, where it was struck by a van loaded with explosives.
Shortly before the blast Mahmud Abdel-Al, the brother of a prominent pro-Syrian Lebanese, Shaikh Ahmad Abdel-Al, is said to have called the mobile phone of Lebanon's president, Emile Lahoud, whose term in office was extended for three years as a result of Syrian pressure.
Shaikh Ahmad, the head of a Sunni Muslim charitable organisation, was cited by the report as a "significant figure" in the case.
Damascus believed Mr Hariri was behind resolution 1559, which called for the withdrawal of Syrian troops and intelligence operatives from Lebanon.
Four high-ranking Lebanese security officials, including Gen Hamdan, have been arrested. The report shows that they may have co-operated with Brig Gen Rustom Ghazali, head of Syrian intelligence in Lebanon, whose predecessor, Gen Ghazi Kanaan, was serving as Syria's defence minister when he committed suicide last week. The Security Council is also due to consider a report by Terje Roed-Larsen, the UN envoy monitoring implementation of resolution 1559.
The US is trying to use Syria's failure to meet all the requirements of this resolution to increase pressure on Damascus to meet Washington's demands to cut its links with dissident Palestinian resistance groups and seal its border with Iraq to prevent infiltration by foreign militants.