The Syrian government and Islamic State used chemical weapons during attacks in Syria in 2014 and 2015, a United Nations report has concluded.
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The White House last night condemned the attacks and the United Nations is likely to impose sanctions against Assad’s regime next week. The White House is turning up the diplomatic heat as Putin prepares to travel to the G20 in China and UN General Assembly in NY in the coming weeks.
The report accuses the Syrian regime under President Bashar al-Assad of carrying out two chlorine gas attacks against its own population in the Idlib province on April, 21 2014 and March 16, 2015.
The watchdog group has discovered soman and VX, precursors for chemical warfare, at several undeclared facilities in Syria, including two near Damascus, over the past three years, raising questions about whether Assad abided by the U.S.
But Russia, an ally of Syria, said there was no concrete proof, leading to the commissioning of the report, written by the Joint Investigative Mechanism. In both the incidents, aircraft dropped a device that released toxic substances once it landed in the villages.
The report “states clearly that the Syrian regime and Daesh have perpetrated chemical attacks in Syria”, French Deputy Ambassador Alexis Lamek told reporters. In 2013, the Syrian regime agreed to the removal and destruction of its chemical weapons and also joined the Chemical Weapons Convention.
The U.S. and other Western allies are in the process of determining whether the OPCW’s findings can be used to argue Syria has violated the United Nations demand, outlined in Resolution 2118, that a country must fully cooperate with global inspectors tasked with holding the Assad leadership accountable to its promise to destroy all chemical weapons.
The results set the stage for a Security Council showdown between the five veto-wielding powers, likely pitting Russian Federation and China against the United States, Britain and France over whether sanctions should be imposed in the wake of the inquiry.
US Ambassador Samantha Power called for “strong and swift action” by the Security Council to follow up on the findings of the report.
It examined nine cases in seven towns where chemical weapons were believed to have been used, and identified responsible parties in three cases.
UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon submitted the report to the members of the Security Council Wednesday.
The findings by the UN and the OPCW present yet another opportunity for all nations to speak with one voice to address these heinous crimes and to make it clear that the use of chemical weapons is intolerable.
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They were destroyed at sea the next year, but it now appears that Assad did not hand over all of the country’s weapons.
