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News ID: 46539
Publish Date : 17 November 2017 - 21:10

Russia Vetoes U.S.-Drafted Resolution on Chemical Attacks in Syria




NEW YORK (Dispatches) – Russia has used its veto power in the United Nations Security Council to block a U.S.-drafted resolution that sought to renew a "flawed" international inquiry into chemical weapons attacks in Syria.
While 11 members of the Security Council voted to extend the mandate for a UN-led Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), which was due to expire by midnight, Russia and Bolivia voted against the initiative.
Russian UN envoy Vasily Nebenzya said prior to the voting that Russia supported the idea but the resolution had to first address the "systemic flaws” affecting the work of the current investigative mission.
"The UK ambassador said Russia has no place in the political process in Syria. Here it is. That is the real aim of this dirty plot — to cast doubt on Russia’s role in the Syrian political settlement," Nebenzya told the UN Security Council.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had indicated in the past that Moscow would "strongly oppose” any attempts to accuse the Syrian government of having a role in chemical weapons attacks in the Arab country.
On April 4, dozens of people were killed in a chemical attack in the Syrian town of Khan Shaykhun in the northwestern province of Idlib. The U.S. and its allies were quick to accuse Syrian government forces of carrying out the attack.
This is while the Syrian government handed over its entire chemical stockpile under a deal negotiated by Russia and the U.S. back in 2013. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) oversaw the operation.
Before the vote, Russia withdrew its own draft resolution, which agreed with an extension of the JIM but called on the panel to re-evaluate its earlier findings. The initiative came back for a vote a short while later but failed to gain enough votes, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has slammed a U.S. claim that Washington is conducting military operations in Syria under a UN mandate, saying the American intervention is illegal.
U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis was asked on Monday about the legal standing of his country’s presence in Syria compared to that of Russia and Iran, which are both fighting terrorists at the Damascus government's request.
"You know, the UN said that … -- basically we can go after ISIS (Daesh). And we're there to take them out,” Mattis said.
Lavrov rejected the claims at a joint press conference with his Argentinian counterpart Jorge Marcelo Faurie in Moscow.
"It is quite interesting how the U.S. justifies its presence there, which is illegitimate because it does not rely either on the decision of the UN Security Council or on the invitation of the legitimate government,” he said.
The top Russian diplomat also noted that there was no Security Council resolution that allowed US troops on the Syrian territory.
Lavrov further said the U.S. State Department had answered "incoherently" when questioned by Moscow on what kind of Security Council solutions Washington was using to justify its operations in Syria.
"They answered something incoherently, and it seemed the respondent clearly understood the absurdity of statements about the existence of allegedly legitimate grounds for finding the US armed forces in Syria."