A report to the U.N. Security Council found that both the Syrian government and the Islamic State militant group have used chemical weapons on civilians.
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It also determined there was sufficient information to conclude that Islamic State militants were the “only entity with the ability, capability, motive and the means to use sulfur mustard gas in Marea on 21 August, 2015”.
“The United States will work with our global partners to seek accountability through appropriate diplomatic mechanisms”, Price said.
The UN-OPCW investigative team was formed by the UN Security Council a year ago to identify parties responsible for chemical attacks in Syria.
JIM is expected to continue its investigation into the remaining confirmed cases, as well as any other confirmed chemical weapons uses referred to the JIM by the OPCW Fact Finding Mission.
A United Nations special committee determined with certainty that chemical weapons were used in Syria against civilians both by the Syrian President and ISIS.
The council is due to discuss the report on Tuesday and could decide to impose sanctions on Syria or ask the International Criminal Court to take up the matter as a war crime.
President Bashar-al Assad and ISIS have both used chemical weapons against Syrian people, a United Nations report found.
Summarizing the study, OPCW director-general Ahmet Üzümcü said the majority of the 122 samples from “multiple locations” in Syria “indicate potentially undeclared chemical weapons-related activities”. The U.S. will probably seek additional U.N. Security Council resolutions against Syria when the report is released, but they have little chance of success. That vote could pit the five vetoed armed members against each other – Russia, a close Syrian ally, and China against the U.S., Britain and France.
Vitaly Churkin, whose country is a strong supporter of the Syrian government, responded to predictions of confrontation by stressing that the USA and Russian Federation created the investigative body to determine those responsible for chemical attacks in Syria.
The U.S. and its Western allies have defined the use of chemical weapons in Syria as a red line and a clear violation of Security Council resolutions banning Syria from deploying them.
“We’ve been pleased that the Assad regime’s declared weapons stockpile has been rounded up” and destroyed, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Wednesday.
Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said: “The use of chemical weapons, which the Syrian authorities agreed to ban in 2013 under worldwide pressure, is an abomination that highlights the damning role played by the Damascus regime in the worsening situation in Syria”.
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The Foreign Policy report details discoveries of precursors for chemical warfare like soman and VX at several locations, including two on the outskirts of Damascus, according to a new 75-page review by the director-general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Findings in three further cases were inconclusive.
