Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- The United Nations Security Council voted 15 to 0 to threaten Syria with economic punishment for any further failure to cooperate with an inquiry into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.

The resolution approved today says Syria must fully assist German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis's investigation into the murder of Hariri and 22 others on Feb. 14 in Beirut by detaining for questioning at a location of his choosing anyone named by the UN as a suspect in the crime.

``The Syrian government has actively and consistently worked to break the will of the Lebanese people and to thwart the will of the international community,'' U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at the UN after the vote. Syria must ``make a strategic decision to fundamentally change its behavior,'' said Rice, who joined foreign ministers of 10 of the 14 other governments in voting for the measure.

The measure, jointly sponsored by the U.S., U.K. and France, says the UN would ``consider further action,'' including the interruption of economic relations, in the event that the Syrian government refuses to cooperate with Mehlis. It also imposes a travel ban and asset freeze on any individual designated by a committee of the Security Council as a suspect in the case.

`Form, Not Substance'

Mehlis said in an Oct. 20 report on Hariri's assassination that Syria has cooperated ``in form, not substance'' and ``made it difficult to follow leads established by the evidence.'' He said seven senior Syrian officials, including the brother and brother-in-law of President Bashar al-Assad, were suspects in Hariri's murder in a bomb attack.

``Syria's cooperation was complete,'' Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara told the Security Council. He called the Mehlis report ``medieval'' in that it didn't grant the Syrian officials a presumption of innocence.

Shara said Assad has created a ``special judiciary commission'' to conduct its own investigation into any Syrian involvement in Hariri's murder.

The resolution is a minor diplomatic victory for the U.S. that increases pressure on Assad's government on several fronts, including tighter border control with Iraq to prevent insurgents from entering the country, according to Stephen Cook, a Middle East analyst for the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

``It increases Syria's diplomatic and economic isolation,'' Cook said. ``It shows that the whole world has changed except for the Assad regime, which is a major problem for them.''

Cook said that while Assad would probably take some steps to relieve the pressure, such as granting citizenship for ethnic Kurds in northern Syria and tightening control of the border with Iraq, the government wouldn't make the type of fundamental move toward democracy the U.S. seeks.

Text Changed

The U.S. and France overcame opposition from Algeria, China and Russia by revising the text to say the Security Council committee, rather than Mehlis, would determine targets of any sanctions. A change today dropped a specific reference in the text to Article 41 of the UN Charter, which lists possible sanctions.

The U.S., U.K., and France retained the authority of Chapter 7 of the charter, which includes Article 41, so the threat of sanctions remains.

``It was never the intention of the co-sponsors to provide for any automatic provision under Article 41,'' U.K. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said. ``We have made it clear that any decision about that would be subject to substantive discussions and resolutions in the future.''

The resolution also extends Mehlis's investigation until Dec. 15, while asking him to report before then on any failure of Syria to cooperate.

Straw, Shara Spar

Straw and Shara engaged in one-on-one debate in the Security Council chamber after the Syrian minister said that by the logic of Mehlis's report, U.S., U.K. and Spanish security agents would have been considered suspects in major terrorist attacks in their respective countries, such as on Sept. 11, 2001, in New York and near downtown Washington.

Mehlis said in his report that considering the presence of Syrian security forces in Lebanon ``it would be difficult to envisage a scenario whereby such a complex assassination plot could not have been carried out without their knowledge.''

Straw called the comparison between Hariri's murder and the July 7 bombings in London's subway system ``grotesque'' and said Shara's statement to the Security Council demonstrated the need to threaten the Assad regime with sanctions. He noted that Mehlis's report said Shara himself tried to mislead the investigation. Rice described Shara's statement as an ``unbelievable tirade.''

Hariri's murder sparked anti-Syrian street protests and led the Security Council to demand that Assad remove his soldiers and intelligence agents from Lebanon.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Varner in United Nations at wvarner@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 31, 2005 14:28 EST