Bush pushes for UN action against Syria
"The report strongly suggests that the politically motivated assassination could not have taken place without Syrian involvement," Bush said.
In Damascus, Syrian leaders dismissed the findings, and the government of President Bashar Assad prepared to fight growing Western sentiment to punish it with economic sanctions.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Imad Moustapha, Syrian ambassador to the United States, said the report was baseless and the Bush administration was motivated by Syria's opposition to the war in Iraq.
He said of the report, in Washington, "It will only help fuel anti-American sentiment around the world."
The report was likely to worsen the divisions between Lebanon's pro- and anti-Syrian groups. Syria's opponents in Lebanon welcomed the findings as the long-awaited truth about the assassination and about Syrian interference in Lebanese affairs. Pro-Syrian politicians vigorously criticized the findings.
The United Nations investigative report, which Bush called "deeply disturbing," made a link between high-ranking Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies in the car bombing that killed Rafiq Hariri and 20 others in February.
The findings and the reaction to them marked the latest escalation in tensions between the United States and Syria. US officials have accused Damascus of harbouring terrorist groups and permitting fighters to cross into Iraq to attack US, Iraqi and other forces there.
The report, issued Thursday to members of the UN Security Council, did not implicate Syrian President Assad directly, but said his government did not cooperate with the inquiry.
Bush spoke in California after helping dedicate a new pavilion at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.
He said he had telephoned Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice earlier in the day and instructed her to call on the United Nations to convene a Security Council session "as quickly as possible to deal with this very serious matter."
Bush was not specific about what steps the international community should take. He said the United States has started talking with UN officials and with Arab governments about that.
"Today a serious report came out that requires the world to look at very carefully and respond accordingly," Bush said.
The United States and France are readying Security Council resolutions critical of Syria.
The Security Council, which can impose political and economic sanctions, was already scheduled to meet next Tuesday to consider the report from German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis. The US mission said Friday it had no plans to call for an earlier meeting time.
Separately, the UN will soon receive another report on Syrian compliance with last year's UN demand that it quit Lebanon and allow political self-determination there.
Rice, on a trip to Tuscaloosa, Ala., said, "Accountability is going to be very important for the international community."
Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, with whom she was travelling, called on Syria to show good will toward Lebanon by establishing diplomatic relations with the country. Syria must "fully understand" that it must not intervene in Lebanon and must respect its sovereignty, Rice said at a joint news conference.
Rice gave no hint what plans the United States has for a Security Council meeting on Syria. The issue must be thoroughly debated, she said.
The council "will have no real credibility if it does not take seriously the implications of this report," Rice said.
In a similar vein, Straw said the council must show the international community that "it is standing up for justice."
Separately, the head of the State Department's Near East Bureau said Hariri was the victim of a "political crime."
"We would like to see those responsible for this crime and others in Lebanon brought to justice," Assistant Secretary of State C. David Welch said in Washington.
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