New York (November 3, 2017): The United States has circulated a draft U.N. Security Council resolution seeking to extend the mandate of an international inquiry into chemical weapons attacks in Syria for another two years.
The American move has come after Russia vetoed an extension of the probe two days ago.
According to foreign news agency the U.S. draft demands Syria not to develop or produce chemical weapons, and it calls on all parties in Syria to provide full cooperation with the international probe.
The investigation by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons- known as the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) – was unanimously created by the 15-member Security Council in 2015 and renewed in 2016 for another year. Its mandate is due to expire in mid-November.
The JIM found that the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad was to blame for a chemical attack on the opposition-held town of Khan Sheikhoun that killed dozens of people in April, according to a report sent to the Security Council on Oct. 26.
Syrian Assad government has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons. It said its strikes in Khan Sheikhoun hit a weapons depot belonging to rebel forces, an assertion “excluded” by U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria Chairman Paulo Pinheiro.
That attack led U.S. President Donald Trump to launch the first U.S. air strikes on a Syrian air base.
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