| "We been cooperating! They just didn't notice!" |
"Syria wants to cooperate because Syria wants to know the truth and wants to know who killed Hariri," Syrian Expatriates Minister Bouthaina Shaaban told CNN on Tuesday. She added Syria had given "full access" to the UN team led by Detlev Mehlis, and would continue to do so. "We are the people who are suffering as a consequence of this terrorist act and we are certainly most interested in finding out who the perpetrators are, and we will certainly cooperate until these perpetrators are found," she said, echoing Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa, who told the Security Council Monday that Syria had divulged "the whole truth" to investigators.Resolution 1636, passed unanimously by the Security Council on Monday, demands that Syria detain suspects and urges a travel ban and a freeze of assets on all individuals designated as suspects in the slaying of Hariri. A passage threatening sanctions was withdrawn to ensure the unanimous vote, but the text does say that the council "if necessary, could consider further action," but did not spell out what that action could be. Russia, a close Syrian ally since the cold war, said it had spared Damascus the threat of sanctions and of being linked, without proof, to terrorism.