Chemical weaponsAssad regime used chemical weapons: UN
The White House on Saturday sharply condemned the use of chemical weapons by the government of Bashar al-Assad, after an international inquiry found that Syrian government forces used toxic gas in spring 2015 in attacks on two rebel-held towns. The fourth report from the 13-month-long inquiry by the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the UN chemical weapons watchdog, blamed Syrian government forces for a toxic gas attack in Qmenas in Idlib governorate on 16 March 2015.
The White House on Saturday sharply condemned the use of chemical weapons by the government of Bashar al-Assad, after an international inquiry found that Syrian government forces used toxic gas in spring 2015 in attacks on two rebel-held towns.
Fox News reports that the fourth report from the 13-month-long inquiry by the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the UN chemical weapons watchdog, blamed Syrian government forces for a toxic gas attack in Qmenas in Idlib governorate on 16 March 2015.
In August, the third report by the inquiry blamed the Assad government for two chlorine attacks – in Talmenes on 21 April 2014 and Sarmin on 16 March 2015 – and said Islamic State fighters had used sulfur mustard gas.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the Assad regime’s defiance of the longstanding global norm against chemical weapons use and Syria’s abrogation of its responsibilities under the Chemical Weapons Convention, which it joined in 2013,” the White House National Security Council spokesman, Ned Price, said in a statement on Saturday.
Price said that Russian “military and economic support to Syria enables the Assad regime to continue its military campaign against its own people.”
Chlorine gas turns to hydrochloric acid in the lungs and can kill by burning lungs and drowning victims in the resulting body fluids.
The fourth report was submitted to the UN security council on Friday, and is likely to trigger a showdown today (Tuesday) between the Western powers, who will likely call for additional sanctions on Syria, and Russia — and possibly China – who would likely use their veto power to block and anti-Syria resolution.
A year ago, the Security Council established the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons-United Nations Joint Investigative Mechanism, known as the JIM, to identify those responsible for chemical attacks in Syria.
The JIM investigated nine cases in seven towns where an OPCW fact-finding mission found that chemical weapons had been used.
