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| Russia blocks US-drafted UN resolution to renew inquiry into chemical weapons attacks in Syria | Russia blocks US-drafted UN resolution to renew inquiry into chemical weapons attacks in Syria |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Russia has vetoed a US-drafted resolution calling for the renewal of an international inquiry into chemical attacks in Syria. The mandate of the current investigative mission expires on Thursday. | Russia has vetoed a US-drafted resolution calling for the renewal of an international inquiry into chemical attacks in Syria. The mandate of the current investigative mission expires on Thursday. |
| Russia withdrew its own rival draft resolution on the inquiry renewal shortly before the UN Security Council vote on the US one. The US resolution was supported by 11 members of the Council. Apart from Russia, Bolivia also opposed the resolution, while China and Egypt abstained from voting. | Russia withdrew its own rival draft resolution on the inquiry renewal shortly before the UN Security Council vote on the US one. The US resolution was supported by 11 members of the Council. Apart from Russia, Bolivia also opposed the resolution, while China and Egypt abstained from voting. |
| Before the vote, on Tuesday, Russian UN envoy Vasily Nebenzya expressed his support for the idea of extending the UN-OPCW mission mandate. However, he stressed that this mandate should be “renewed” to correct the “systemic flaws” affecting the work of the current investigative mission. He added that this was the goal of Russia’s draft resolution. | Before the vote, on Tuesday, Russian UN envoy Vasily Nebenzya expressed his support for the idea of extending the UN-OPCW mission mandate. However, he stressed that this mandate should be “renewed” to correct the “systemic flaws” affecting the work of the current investigative mission. He added that this was the goal of Russia’s draft resolution. |
| Russia’s decision to veto the resolution provoked an angry reaction from the US envoy to the UN, Nikki Haley. She accused Moscow of “killing” the resolution, which had received backing from most members of the UN Security Council, and of “undermining” the UN’s ability to prevent chemical attacks in the future. | |
| Earlier, Russia repeatedly criticized the UN-OPCW Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) that was conducting a probe into chemical attacks in Syria under the UNSC mandate. The Russian OPCW envoy, Alexander Shulgin, said a week ago that the investigation in fact is particularly “skewed” towards one theory behind the chemical attack in Syria’s Idlib province that took place in April. | |
| He also said that the inquiry fails “basic standards” of an investigation and ignores any information that would cast doubt on Damascus’s involvement in the April incident. | |
| “We are of the view that the JIM report, the seventh report, has been established by a flagrant disregard of [the] basic higher standards of the Chemical Convention, UN Security Council resolutions and previous decisions by the ECE executive council,” Shulgin said. | |
| Later in November, the Russian Foreign Ministry accused the probe into April Khan Shaykhun’s chemical incident of disregarding the Convention’s guidelines and of “dilettantism.” In response, the head of the JIM, Edmond Mulet, accused Moscow of attempts to protect the Syrian government. | |
| The ministry firmly rejected Mulet’s allegations, stating, the official was only trying to whitewash his own reputation, shaken by the improper investigation of the Khan Shaykhun chemical incident. The JIM also ignored Moscow’s concerns over the standard of its report, backed with figures and facts. |