UN to vote on US Russia bids to renew Assad chemical attacks inquiry

UN to vote on US Russia bids to renew Assad chemical attacks inquiry
The mandate for the joint inquiry by the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which found the Assad regime used the banned nerve agent sarin in an April 4 attack, expires at midnight Thursday.

The United States was first to ask for a vote on its draft resolution, followed quickly by Russia. A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Russia, Britain or China to be adopted.

Diplomats say there is little support among the 15-member council for the Russian draft, which Russian UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia has said aims to correct “systemic errors” of the inquiry, known as the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM).

Russia has vetoed nine resolutions on Syria since the conflict started in 2011, including blocking an initial US bid on Oct. 24 to renew the JIM, saying it wanted to wait for the release two days later of the inquiry’s report that blamed a sarin gas attack on the Assad regime.

“The United States hopes the Security Council will stand united in the face of chemical weapons use against civilians and extend the work of this critical group,” the US mission to the United Nations said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Not doing so would only give consent to such atrocities while tragically failing the Syrian people who have suffered from these despicable acts,” it said.

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