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.
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According to the report, obtained by The Associated Press, the JIM found the Syrian government responsible for two chlorine attacks in Idlib governorate, one in Talmenes on April 21, 2014 and one in Sarmin on March 16, 2015.
The report found ISIS “was the only entity with the ability, capability, motive and the means to use sulphur mustard” in an attack on the town of Marea in northern Aleppo on August 21, 2015.
Alexis Lamek said the U.N. Security Council must take action against the perpetrators following Wednesday’s report by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons-United Nations Joint Investigative Mechanism.
In the report, Jim said that between December 2015 and August 2016 it received more than 130 new allegations from United Nations member states of the use of chemical weapons or toxic chemicals as weapons in Syria.
“The use of these weapons is abhorrent and we unequivocally condemn those who unleash them”, British U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft told the council on Monday.
However, Russia – a close Syrian ally – and China have previously protected the Syrian government from council action by blocking several resolutions, including a bid to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court.
Chlorine’s use as a weapon is prohibited under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, which Syria joined in 2013.
The findings of the report indicate that the Syrian Air Force used a chemical weapon when it bombed villages in the northeastern part of the country.
The UN commission did not have enough evidence to rule which side was responsible for six other chemical attacks in Syria.
Quoting a confidential report, the website says US and European inspectors have repeatedly found traces of nerve agents in Syrian labs and that the government’s stories have changed several times.
‘We urge all United Nations member states and parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention, including Russian Federation and Iran, to participate in this effort. At the time, Islamic State fighters were attacking rebels.
Appearing during a heated session of the UN Security Council on Tuesday, Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari hit out at several members of the US-led coalition.
The 24-member team said there was insufficient information to reach a conclusion in three other cases and recommended that there be no further investigation of those suspected attacks.
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Power said the United States expects the JIM to continue investigating the remaining confirmed cases and any others referred by the OPCW fact-finding mission.
