The United Kingdom is studying a Russian draft resolution to create a new investigative body to probe the use of chemical weapons in Syria, UK Deputy Permanent Representative Jonathan Allen told reporters.
“We’re studying the draft that we’ve received, we’ll look at that carefully and see what merit there is within it,” Allen said on Wednesday. “In the past, Russia has attempted to put forward texts which essentially prohibit anybody from investigating any state actor and that’s a deep concern to us. We’re studying the resolution, we’ll hear more from the Russians about their intention.”
Russia on Tuesday introduced a draft UN Security Council resolution to create a new international investigative body to objectively probe the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
On October 26, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), as well as the OPCW-United Nations Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) presented its report on the incidents in Syria’s Umm Hawsh on September 15-16, 2016 and in Khan Sheikhoun on April 4, 2017.
The report claims that the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad is responsible for the use of sarin in the Khan Sheikhoun incident, while the Daesh terrorist organization is responsible for the use of sulfur mustard in Umm Hawsh.
Russia has pointed to the absence of tangible results in the work of the OPCW-UN mission on numerous occasions. The Russian Permanent Mission to the United Nations stated that the report was based mostly on assumptions and the selective use of facts.
In November, Russia vetoed the US-drafted resolution that aimed to prolong the mandate of the OPCW-UN JIM and submitted its own resolution. Russia’s draft, co-sponsored by China and Bolivia, did not secure the required number of votes.