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Avoiding UN Failure
by Allan Topol, [IMAGE]2005

ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED AT MILITARY.COM, November 02, 2005

Photo Courtesy: Julie Zitin
[Allan Topol / AllanTopol.Com] The U.N. consistently provides a forum for discussion without action. And so it is with Syria and its assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. On Monday, by a fifteen-to-zero vote, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution on this issue. It may have had unanimity, but it had absolutely no teeth.

The United States and Britain, joined by France for a change, were seeking to impose economic and other sanctions against Syria for its role in the assassination. The involvement of the Syrian regime of Bashir Assad at the highest levels is unquestioned. Detlev Mehlis, a meticulous and forceful German investigator retained by the U.N., has solidly established the Syrian regime's culpability.

Resultantly, the United States, Britain and France urged the Security Council to take the next step and impose sanctions. Russia and China threatened vetos (a familiar role) and the United States was forced to back down. Russia and China, joined by Algeria, argued that it was premature to consider punitive measures - an absurd position in light of the German investigator's conclusions. The United States had to settle for a totally useless resolution that orders Syria to cooperate "fully and unconditionally" with the continuing U.N. resolution.

They must be laughing in Damascus where Assad and his confidantes have demonstrated their unwillingness to cooperate. In fact, during the debate the Syrian foreign minister criticized the report of the German investigator, calling it biased and based upon preconceived conclusions. In his words, the Syrian cooperation has already been "complete."

The United States for its part is relegated to veiled "if you don't cooperate now, we'll take action against you" threats against Syria, reminiscent of a parent's warning to misbehaving children. This reality is rendered even direr by the fact that the Hariri assassination is only one of the Syrian government's recent illegal actions. It is also supporting terrorists throughout the Middle East as well as facilitating the insurgency in Iraq.

Nothing will happen in the U.N. The time has come for the United States to get realistic about Syria. We must develop alternatives that will permit effective action. But given the state of our military involvement in Iraq, unseating the Assad regime by unilateral force is not a viable option nor would any other countries join with us in such an endeavor. On the other hand, the U.S. could impose meaningful and punitive economic sanctions against Syria outside of the U.N. framework. At the same time we'd have to ensure that the same European countries that facilitated trade with Saddam Hussein did not undercut them. With Britain and France in agreement and joined by other European countries longing to see the EU become a meaningful force in international affairs, joint U.S./EU sanctions on Syria might just be a novel and effective way around the gridlock of the U.N.