The UN Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution to set up an independent panel to investigate who was behind the chemical weapons attacks in Syria.
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A chemical weapon killed hundreds of civilians in a Damascus suburb in August 2013 – just one of dozens of reports of chemicals weapons use in Syria.
“We presume that today’s decision is primarily preemptive in nature and will put a firm barrier to the further use of toxic chemicals as a weapon in Syria”, Churkin said.
“This sends a clear and powerful message to all those involved in chemical weapons attacks in Syria”.
The proposed inquiry will be tasked with identifying individuals, entities, groups, or governments involved in the use of chemicals as weapons, including chlorine or any other toxic chemical in Syria, according to United Nations News Centre.
“When the day comes – and it will come someday – that we have an effective accountability mechanism, this evidence gathered by the Joint Investigative Mechanism, the identification of these perpetrators, will become very, very important”, Power said. Secretary of State John Kerry announced Thursday that he and Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, had agreed on the resolution text, a signal that Russia would not use its veto to block it. But neither the organization nor the United Nations has a mandate to determine responsibility.
The council approved a U.S.-drafted resolution in March which threatens sanctions, among other measures, against Syria for the use of chemical weapons.
The U.S. sponsored an informal Security Council meeting in April for council members to hear firsthand accounts of chemical weapons attacks.
Syrian Kurdish forces have also reported the use of Chlorine-tipped shells, thought to be remnants of Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein’s arsenal, being deployed against their forces by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).
The Syrian government accuses the armed opposition fighting to wrest control of the country as “terrorists”.
In a rare show of solidarity between the US and Russian Federation, the veto-wielding ally of Syria, the 15-member council endorsed the move which will allow UN chief Ban Ki-moon and the head of Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to establish an investigative body.
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“Sometimes there are publications that something undeclared [chemical weapon] could remain in Syria”.
