France Washes Its Hands Of Hariri Tribunal

We knew all along that Nicolas Sarkozy was no Jacques Chirac, but this?

“Three years ago Bashar was embattled … he and the family came really under pressure after Hariri’s killing. Now their position has improved,” Robbins said.

More importantly, analysts say, the U.N. tribunal that could prosecute elements of the Syrian leadership its investigators identified as responsible for Hariri’s assassination has been made to look irrelevant.

“It’s a non-subject in French-Syrian relations,” a French official said. “France has nothing to say on the subject — it is the international community through the Security Council that has taken this matter in hand.”