Chemical weaponsUN inquiry to determine who is responsible for chemical attacks in Syria

Russia has withdrawn its objections to a UN investigation into identifying the culprits responsible for chemical attacks in Syria, allowing a probe to begin, UN diplomats said Thursday.

On 7 August the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution approving a joint investigation by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had proposed that the investigative team should consist of three independent experts, and asked the Security Council for the go ahead to recruit them.

Russia, which heads the council in September, has been slow to respond.

Newsweek reports that according to diplomats, Russia wanted guarantees on several points, among them that the sovereignty of its Syrian ally would be respected, and on the mission’s financing. These conditions already represented a concession by Russia. For the last two years, Russia had insisted that a series of UN investigative teams sent to Syria would be limited to finding out whether or not chemical weapons had been used, but would be barred from identifying who was responsible for launching them.

On Wednesday, Ban sent a a letter to Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin, assuring him that the United Nations would “expeditiously consult” with Damascus on an agreement governing how the mission will function and that there be “reasonable grounds” for its demands for access.

The Syrian government is expected to cooperate fully with the investigators.

In a statement on Thursday, Ban said he would “without delay, undertake all steps, measures and arrangements necessary for the speedy establishment and full functioning of the [joint investigative mechanism].”

He did not say when the investigation would begin, but called “on all parties in the Syrian Arab Republic to cooperate fully.”

The Russians also wanted the investigators to look into the use of chemical weapons in Iraq by Islamic State militants. This, however, would have required a new resolution and the agreement of the Iraqi government.

The Kurdish authorities in Iraq charged that last month ISIS had attacked Kurdish fighters with sarin gas in Iraq and in northern Syria.

Western intelligence agencies have gathered evidence that the forces of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad have used barrel bombs filled with chlorine in attacks on civilian villages and neighborhoods in areas held by anti-regime rebels.

Russia argues there is no proof implicating the Assad regime in the use of chemical weapons, although the Syrian army is the only force in Syria with an air force, and hence the only force able to drop chlorine bombs from helicopters.

Newsweek notes that the UN investigators will be tasked with determining who is responsible for the chemical attacks. Whether or not sanctions can then be imposed by the Security Council is a different question, since Russia would likely use its veto power to prevent further measures against Assad.