Post-UN vote, several hundred Syrians protest at U.S. embassy

A few hundred Syrians waved flags, pledged support for their president and insisted that Syria was innocent of the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri in a protest near the U.S. embassy on Tuesday, a day after the U.N. Security Council passed a tough resolution against their country.

"We are not criminals. We are not terrorists. We just need peace," declared one protester on the podium in Al-Rawda square, where patriotic songs blared from a loudspeaker.

Earlier Tuesday, Russia defended its stance on the UN Security Council resolution passed Monday night that ordered Syria to cooperate fully with a probe of the assassination, saying it had spared Damascus the threat of sanctions and of being linked, without proof, with terrorist activities.

A statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry said: "Thanks to the efforts of the Russian side and other delegations, politicised stances that had nothing to do with the investigation of Hariri's death were withdrawn.

"The threat of automatic sanctions against Syria as a state was removed. Attempts to accuse Damascus, without proof, of involvement in terrorist activities were rejected," it said.

Russia, a close ally of Syria since Cold War times, said the resolution, as passed, opened the way for "broad and effective dialogue of the Syrian side with international investigators."

Israel praised the UN's tough stance after the resolution was passed, but called for the international community to continue pressuring Syria.

Syria slams resolutionDespite Russia's efforts, however, Syria said on Tuesday the resolution was "very negative" towards Damascus as it was adopted unanimously.

"We consider the resolution to be very negative towards Syria and as it is unanimous this makes it more problematic," a Foreign Ministry source told Reuters.

"It is accusatory and adopts the assumptions that (chief UN investigator Detlev) Mehlis had arrived at which we consider hasty and not objective enough."

Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaf had said Monday that the international body accused his country of a crime it did not commit. "The council proceeded on the presumption of a criminal act rather than on the presumption of innocence," he said.

The Syrian minister denounced the resolution for targeting Syria, calling it "illogical" because, he claimed, the council based its action on inconclusive evidence.

Al-Sharaf said he would provide all evidence that Damascus has cooperated with the Mehlis commission if he can be heard in a closed-door session of the Security Council.

U.S., UN using diplomatic, rather than military, forceYesterday's Security Council proceedings illustrated the ability of the UN and its institutions to avoid a decision by postponing it. All concerned will heave a sigh of relief if the Syrian President Bashar Assad can get a grip on the situation and pay the high price necessary to get the Franco-American weight off his back.

Major General Uzi Dayan, who is visiting the United States to raise funds for his Tafnit movement, explained this week that Israel has no interest in the disappearance of Assad. Israel prefers a more moderate, softer Bashar to unknown chaos, as does the U.S.

Thus Rice agreed to give up the main demands that were originally supposed to appear in the Security Council's resolution. The sanctions were not the only thing missing from the final version - so was the demand that the Syrian government sever ties with the militant organizations that maintain offices in Syria.

The Syrians need make only little steps to persuade the international community to look for another scapegoat. The problem everyone talks about in Washington is that so far Assad has failed to understand the demands and expectations and flunked every test.

Washington accuses Damascus of stoking insurgents who fuel the conflict in nearby Iraq, of undermining the peace process and of funding "terrorist" acts in addition to the Hariri killing.

Iraq's shadow hovered over Monday's deliberations at UN headquarters in New York, prompting questions about whether the U.S. might eventually use military action to enforce the Syria resolution, which was approved under Chapter VII of the U.N. charter, meaning it is militarily enforceable.

"No one's talking about anything like that," insisted British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to reporters.

Much of the situation's outcome depends on the Mehlis probe and whether it implicates Assad himself in Hariri's assassination, American officials said.

"If the international community believes Assad and his circle are guilty of killing Hariri, it's very difficult to see how they can be left in power," said an U.S. congressional aide and expert on Mideast affairs, who is restricted from speaking on the record.

"What I keep hearing from everyone ... is that the regime is weakening and the fear factor [among Syrians] is diminishing," he said, but he wondered whether opposition to Assad's rule might be "reaching a critical mass."

But the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Alterman said it is unclear who might succeed Assad. Neither the military nor pro-democracy activists have the capacity to take over, he said.

	Syrian FM Farouk al-Sharaa sitting at the United Nations Security Council table on Monday. (AP)