WASHINGTON, Feb 15 (AFP) - The United States is talking to UN Security Council members about how to punish whoever was responsible for the slaying of Lebanese former prime minister Rafiq Hariri, the White House said Tuesday.
"We're going to be in consultation with members of the Security Council and those consultations are under way," said spokesman Scott McClellan, who refused to say what range of measures was under consideration.
"We talked about how we were to discuss measures to punish those who were responsible for the terrorist attack. And, yes, that remains what we are committed to," he said.
McClellan told reporters that "it's too early to know who was responsible" for the bombing that killed Hariri but launched another broadside at Syria, calling anew for Damascus to withdraw its 14,000 troops from Lebanon.
"Syria's presence in Lebanon is a destabilizing force," said the spokesman.
"It's too early to know who was responsible for this attack, but this kind of terrorist attack further underscores the importance of allowing the Lebanese people to decide their future and to have the freedom and control over their own political process," he said.
McClellan also reiterated Washington's longstanding concerns about Syria's alleged programs to develop weapons of mass destruction, "ongoing support for terrorism," and charged that Saddam Hussein loyalists were using Syria as a base of operations for attacks inside Iraq.
"We remain concerned about regime elements operating out of Syria," he said. "We've called on Syria to take action to go after those regime elements and prevent them from operating from Syria."
02/15/2005 15:19 GMT - AFP