Draft resolution aimed at identifying perpetrators of WMD attacks in war-torn country circulates at Security Council
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States and Russia have reached agreement on a draft United Nations resolution aimed at identifying the perpetrators of chemical weapons attacks in Syria so they can be brought to justice, two Security Council diplomats said Wednesday.
The diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because discussions were private, said the final draft has been circulated to all 15 Security Council members. They have until 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) on Thursday to raise objections, the diplomat said.
If there are no objections to the text, one diplomat said the resolution could be put to a vote as early as Friday.
While Russia and the United States have failed to agree on a way to end the Syrian conflict, now in its fifth year, they did agree on eliminating its chemical weapons stockpile.
The US has been pressing for the council to take action to ensure accountability for an increasing number of alleged chlorine attacks that have caused deaths and injuries. Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said in June the council should look for the best way to ensure that people allegedly responsible for chlorine attacks are brought before a court.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the global chemical weapons watchdog, has a mandate to carry out fact-finding missions to determine whether there have been chemical attacks. But neither the OPCW nor the UN have a mandate to determine responsibility for the use of chlorine or chemical weapons.
According to one council diplomat, the final draft asks UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in coordination with OPCW Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu, to submit to the Security Council within 20 days recommendations to establish an “OPCW-United Nations Joint Investigative Mechanism.”
It says this investigative body will identify “to the greatest extent feasible individuals, entities, groups, or governments who were perpetrators, organizers, sponsors or otherwise involved in the use of chemicals as weapons, including chlorine or any other toxic chemical” in Syria, in instances where an OPCW fact-finding mission determines or has determined that an incident involved or likely involved the use of chemicals weapons.
US and Russian diplomats have been meeting at the UN on the text of the resolution and US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed the need to address the “possession and potential use of chemical weapons” by the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad on Wednesday, according to a senior US official traveling with Kerry in Malaysia.
Following a chemical weapon attack on a Damascus suburb that killed hundreds of civilians on Aug. 21, 2013 a US-Russian agreement led to a Security Council resolution the following month ordering the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons, precursors, and the equipment to produce the deadly agents.
The Syrian government’s support for the resolution and decision to join the OPCW warded off possible US military strikes in the aftermath of the attack, which Damascus denied carrying out.
Syria’s declared stockpile of 1,300 metric tons of chemicals has been destroyed, but the OPCW is still investigating outstanding questions about possible undeclared chemical weapons.
Chlorine is not a banned agent used in chemical weapons, like sarin or ricin. But it is toxic and its use in attacks in Syria started being reported last year.
In March, the Security Council approved a US-drafted resolution that condemns the use of toxic chemicals such as chlorine in Syria, and threatens further measures including sanctions in the case of violations.
As reported by The Times of Israel