Russia Calls For New Probe into Syrian Chemical Attack

Russia has proposed a new probe body under the auspices of the UN Security Council to determine the perpetrators of the April 2017 chemical attack in Syria that killed over 80 persons.

“We want to rise above the differences and propose [the] creation of a new international investigative body,” tasked with establishing facts and seeking those responsible for the use of chemical weapons in Syria “based on the impeccable and irrefutable data obtained in a transparent and credible way,” Russia’s permanent representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzia told the Security Council on Tuesday.

The US rejected the move, calling it as a distraction from a French-led mission against chemical weapons' use that was launched in the presence of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Paris on Tuesday.

Moscow wants it to establish evidence to identify the perpetrators in the April 4 attack that killed over 80 persons, Xinhua news agency reported.

Hundreds suffered symptoms consistent with a reaction to a nerve agent after the "suspected chemical attack" on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun in north-western Syria, the BBC said.

The earlier Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) of the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), established in 2015, expired in November after the UNSC failed to expand its mandate.

The JIM’s handling of the investigation of chemical attacks in Syria, including the April incident in Khan Shaykhun in Idlib province, was criticised by Russia. Moscow claimed that JIM’s investigations were full of “systemic deficiencies” and speculations and lacked hard evidence.

Nebenzia said his delegation has drawn up a draft resolution and asked for its circulation among the delegations. The Russian call in UNSC comes in the backdrop of the report of an alleged chemical attack in a Damascus suburb few days back.

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, however, doubted Russia's intentions, noting that Russia used its veto three times in 2017 to stop the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the UN for chemical weapons use in Syria.

"So we're not going to accept any Russian proposal that undermines our ability to get to the truth or that politicises what must be an independent and impartial investigation," Haley told the same meeting.

Haley indicated that the Russian proposal was a distraction from a French-led International Partnership Against Impunity for the Use of Chemical Weapons.

“The fact that our resolution was outright dismissed says volumes. The United States of America does not need an independent, professional mechanism. Not only that you reveal the truth, but you show your true colours in front of the international community,” said Nebenzia.

Earlier, at the conference of International Partnership Against Impunity in Paris, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that “Whoever conducted the attacks Russia ultimately bears responsibility for the victims in eastern Ghouta and countless other Syrians targeted with chemical weapons”

Previous reports by the JIM have found that both the Syrian government forces and the Islamic State group in the country were using chemical weapons.

(with inputs from IANS)