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.
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UNITED NATIONS (AP) Russia’s U.N. ambassador said Thursday there doesn’t have to be a confrontation with the United States over a report that blames the Syrian government and Islamic State militants for carrying out chemical attacks in the conflict-torn country.
The inconsistencies have further fueled speculation among US and Western officials that the Syrian government may be attempting to maintain a limited chemical weapons capacity to use against rebels fighting to topple Assad.
The JIM said three other cases it investigated pointed toward government responsibility but weren’t conclusive and three more cases were inconclusive.
An investigative body was established by the Security Council in August past year to identify “individuals, entities, groups, or governments involved in the use of chemicals as weapons, including chlorine or any other toxic chemical”, in Syria.
But the new report indicates Syria held on to some of its chemical weapons and also found it has not given proper access to the top leaders of its chemical weapons program and has not accounted for 2,000 aerial bombs made to deliver mustard gas.
The report, which evaluates chemical weapons in Syria, was expected to be released to the media for review later in the day.
Russia, a close ally of Syria, has blocked sanctions and other council action against Bashar Assad’s government, but Moscow did support the establishment of the JIM.
The UN Security Council will discuss the report next week and is likely to impose sanctions on Assad’s regime.
In September 2013, Syria accepted a Russian proposal to relinquish its chemical weapons stockpile and join the Chemical Weapons Convention.
“We have been very clear to the Assad regime … that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized”, President Barack Obama told reporters in August, 2012.
Syria says that French intelligence agencies orchestrated the deadly chemical attack in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta to divert United Nations weapons inspectors from another incident carried out by militants in Aleppo.
The NSC statement went on to accuse the regime of violating the Chemical Weapons Convention and a United Nations resolution. At the time, Isis fighters were attacking rebels. It said all three need further investigation. “The council will have to act”, he said.
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United States ambassador to UN Samantha Power said that the repeated use of chemical weapons in Syria violates UN Security Council Resolution 2118 and worldwide standards and norms against chemical weapons use.
