UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addressed the UN Security Council on Friday, speaking about the resumption of the Cold War.
The UN Secretary-General started his speech with the issue of an alleged chemical weapons use in the Syrian city of Douma.
“Increasing tensions and the inability to reach a compromise in the establishment of an accountability mechanism threaten to lead to a full-blown military escalation,” Guterres stated at a meeting of the UN Security Council, referring to the recent claims of the US and its allies, saying that Damascus was behind the alleged chemical attack.
Following the accusations, the US announced that it mulled to conduct the airstrikes in Syria.
The UN top official reiterated strong condemnation of the use of chemical weapons by any party to the conflict and under any circumstances:
“I reaffirm my full support for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the OPCW and its fact-finding mission in undertaking the required investigation into these allegations.”
In his address to the Security Council, he called for a creation of an independent mechanism to investigate the possible use of chemical weapons.
“I appeal to the Security Council to fulfill its duties and not give up on efforts to agree upon a dedicated, impartial, objective, and independent mechanism for attributing responsibility with regard to the use of chemical weapons,” Guterres said.
The UN official underlined that there was no military solution to the conflict.
“I reiterate there is no military solution to the conflict. The solution must be political, through the Geneva Intra-Syrian talks as stipulated in Resolution 2254 of the Security Council and in line with the consistent efforts of my special envoy Steffan de Mistura,” Guterres stated.