Roundup: UN Security Council seeks to find out who is responsible for chlorine gassing in Syria

The UN Security Council on Friday unanimously adopted a resolution setting up a mechanism to determine responsibility "to the greatest extent feasible" who or what entity has used chemical weapons in Syria.

The resolution, passed because of unusual cooperation between Russia and the United States to fashion a draft resolution on Syria that was mutually agreeable, is necessary because an earlier resolution only called for determining if chemical weapons were used.

The council said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "in coordination" with The Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) must send within 20 days to the Security Council, for its authorization, "recommendations, including elements of Terms of Reference, regarding the establishment and operation of an OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM)."

The two organizations must recruit "impartial and experienced staff with relevant skills and expertise .. on as wide of a geographical basis as is practicable" to form the JIM, which is to last for one year, "with the possibility of future extension by the Security Council," the resolution said.

The JIM's task is "to 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 where the OPCW's earlier Fact Finding Mission ( FFM) "determined that a specific incident" involved or likely involved the use of chemicals, including chlorine. It must first report back in 90 days to the Security Council and then every 30 days afterward.

After adoption of the resolution, a spokesman for the secretary- general said that Ban welcomed it, citing "Continuing allegations of the use of toxic chemicals as weapons in Syria," that "have led to increased concerns from the international community."

"The secretary-general has repeatedly stressed the unacceptability of the use of toxic chemicals as weapons, and called for those responsible to be held accountable," said the spokesman. "The Security Council has decided to act and take the necessary action not just to halt the continued use of toxic chemicals as weapons by any party to the conflict, but also to send a strong collective message that any such use will not be tolerated."

"It will be an extremely challenging mission. The dangerous security situation inside the country will certainly impact the mission's activities. Full cooperation from all parties, including the government of the Syrian Arab Republic, will be essential. The process will once again require the active engagement of the international community," said the UN spokesman.

China's UN Ambassador Liu Jieyi said that Beijing supported professional, just and objective investigations of the use of chemical weapons in Syria, while stressing the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria must be respected during the investigation process.

The international community and the 15-nation council in particular should not waver in the search for a political settlement in Syria, the Chinese envoy said, hoping that the resolution would be conducive to forging a consensus of the council on the issue of Syria and help it unite to end the more than four-year-old conflict as soon as possible.

"China's position on chemical weapons is clear and consistent," Liu said. "We resolutely oppose use of chemical weapons by anyone and under any circumstances."

"We express our concern on the incident of the use of chlorine gas as a weapon within Syria as verified by OPCW," he said.

For his part, Ambassador Bashar al-Jaafari of Syria reiterated his government's denial it has used chlorine or any other toxic chemicals.

"The Syrian government and army have never used chemical weapons; they will never use chemical weapons," he told members of the council. "Syrian civilians were targeted for the use of toxic chemicals and chemical weapons, including chlorine gas, by armed terrorist groups."

He said "the neutrality, the transparency, the credibility and the integrity and removal from politicization -- as well as cooperation and coordination with the Syrian government -- must be the guiding principles of the activities of the mechanism created by the resolution," al-Ja'afari said. "We are saying this due to our experience with preceding missions which, in the past, have transgressed all of these principles in their work and their practices, specifically because they were counting on false witness statements."

Meanwhile, Ambassador Samantha Power of the United States said, "Witness accounts, photographs, and videos of the attacks and their victims, and other forms of evidence led the OPCW to determine that there was 'compelling confirmation' that a toxic chemical was used 'systematically and repeatedly' as a weapon in the villages of Talmenes, Tamanah, and Kafr Zita, between April and August of 2014."

"Until we adopted today's resolution, there was no mechanism to take the obvious next step, determining who is involved in such attacks," the Washington envoy said. "Even when there were obvious signs pointing to the parties responsible, investigators were not empowered to point the finger. This has compounded an already- rampant sense of impunity in Syria."

Ambassador Vitaly Churkin of Russia said, "the question of who used chlorine is still unanswered, partly because the existing mechanisms of the UN-OPCW do not have a mandate to identify those participating in such acts. Moreover, we became witnesses of many politicized statements in this regard which were clearly meant to be propaganda."

"It was necessary to eliminate this gap which was done with the adoption of today's resolution," he said. "Today's decision is, first of all, preventive and it lays the foundation for the future to do away with the future use of toxic chemicals as weapons in Syria."

"Taking into account the complex political-military situation in Syria, we believe it is extremely important that the JIM can correctly develop relationships within the country and develop a mechanism in the field, otherwise that wouldn't be possible."

Any efforts in the Syrian area must be in line with the logic of assisting the search for a political solution to the conflict and should not lead to the further antagonizing of the parties," he said. "This remains a priority in combating terrorism and the political solution of the crisis in Syria." Endite