Friendless, vulnerable and with his regime accused by the United Nations of having murdered Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister, Mr al-Assad may well rue the day he abandoned his studies at the Western Eye Hospital in London and embarked on one of the most disastrous political careers in modern Middle East history.

Once a dominant force in the Arab world under his father’s rule, Syria yesterday was isolated and faced the very real possibility of becoming an international pariah unless it conforms to a list of demands that could destroy the regime and its ruling family.

In spite of yesterday’s dispute over the editing of the report by German investigator Detlev Mehlis into Hariri’s murder, the 53-page document leaves little to the imagination.

Syrian and Lebanese security services planned and executed the assassination of Hariri and 22 others in a massacre on the Beirut seafront on Valentine’s Day. When it was over they tried to hide evidence and lead investigators on false trails.

The report is littered with stunning disclosures and damning details from forensic evidence to intercepted telephone conversations and eyewitness testimony.

The vehicle used in the attack, a white Mitsubishi Canter stolen in Japan, was driven into Lebanon from Syria by a Syrian Army officer days before the assassination. It was concealed at the Hammana Syrian military base where it was loaded with 1,000 kg of explosives.

Intercepted telephone conversations give some measure of the mood among Syrians and their Lebanese allies as they plotted Hariri’s downfall and eventual removal.

“We are going to send him on a trip. Bye, bye Hariri,” said Mustafa Hamdan, the former head of Lebanon’s Presidential Guard, who was arrested earlier this year. Another, identified as “X” says: “May he (Hariri) rot in hell.”

Various witnesses report that Mr al-Assad threatened to “break Lebanon over Hariri’s head” in an angry encounter before the decision was taken to assassinate him. By far the most serious implications in the report are allegations by a former Syrian intelligence agent that General Assef Shawkat, the head of Syrian military intelligence and the President’s brother-in-law, and Colonel Maher al-Assad, the President’s brother and commander of the elite presidential guard brigade conspired directly in the assassination.

Yesterday America, France and Britain were already planning the next step in the Hariri saga, which will be played out at the UN Security Council on Tuesday when Herr Mehlis briefs the 15 member states.

He is likely to be given the mandate to continue his investigation for another two months. That would give Damascus a few more weeks to consider its options — none of them good.

President Bush last night described the report as “deeply disturbing” and called for an urgent UN meeting to discuss it. “The report strongly suggests that the politically motivated assassination could not have taken place without Syrian involvement,” he said.

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