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2nd LD Writethru: UN Security Council OKs resolution condemning chlorine bombs use in Syria

Xinhua, March 7, 2015 Adjust font size:

The UN Security Council on Friday approved a resolution condemning the use of chlorine as a weapon in Syria.

The resolution, which was adopted by 14 of the 15 Council members with Venezuela abstaining in the vote, "condemns in the strongest terms any use of any toxic chemical, such as chlorine, as a weapon in the Syrian Arab Republic."

The Council members expressed deep concern that toxic chemicals have been used as a weapon in Syria as concluded "with a high degree of confidence" by the fact-finding mission of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

The Council also called on all parties in Syria to extend their full cooperation to the fact-finding mission (FFM), which was mandated to establish the facts surrounding allegations of the use of toxic chemicals for hostile purposes in Syria.

Reiterating that no party in Syria should use, develop, produce, acquire, stockpile, retain, or transfer chemical weapons, the 15- nation Council stressed that those individuals responsible for any use of chemicals as weapons, including chlorine or any other toxic chemical, "must be held accountable."

The most powerful UN body also "decides in the event of future non-compliance with resolution 2118 to impose measures under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter," which provides for sanctions and possible militarily enforced action.

Friday's resolution is the second one regarding the use of chemical weapons in Syria. The Council passed its Resolution 2118 in September 2013 requiring the verification and destruction of Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles after the war-torn Middle East country agreed to join the Chemical Weapons Convention.

The FFM, which was established in April 2014 to investigate chlorine attacks in Syria, has published three reports saying that toxic chemicals, most likely pulmonary irritating agents such as chlorine, have been used "repeatedly and systematically" as a weapon in the Syria conflict.

The Syrian government and the rebels have accused each other of using chemical agents, including chlorine, in the nearly four-year war that has killed more than 210,000 people. Endite