The United States has come
down heavily on Russia for raising questions over a United Nations report that
has blamed Syria’s dictator Bashar al Assad for using chemical weapons to kill
innocent civilians.
The United Nations-Organization
for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (UN-OPCW) released last week its latest
report on the Khan Sheikhun sarin gas attack on April 4, 2017 in Syria which
had killed over 100 Syrians including children and women concluding that it was
indeed the Assad regime that had released the poisonous gas.
The report by the UN-OPCW
Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), a body of experts formed by the UN
Security Council unanimously, said “the panel was confident that the Syrian
Arab Republic was responsible for the release of sarin at Khan Sheikhun on 4
April 2017" which was instantly countered by Russia, one of the few allies
of the Syrian dictator.
Rejecting the JIM report and
the experts behind it, Russia had said the panel of experts had failed to meet
the norms of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in case of Syria with
serious lapses and an inept investigation concluding that “a thorough reading
of the report showed it to hardly be professionally prepared and it was rather
amateurish and was generally based on speculations and selective use of facts.”
Slamming the Russian stand, The
White House today said, “Russia’s attempts to undermine and eliminate the JIM
show a callous disregard for the suffering and loss of life caused by the use
of chemical weapons and an utter lack of respect for international norms.”
Calling the Russian bluff, The
White House said this April attack was the fourth time the JIM confirmed use of
chemical weapons by the Assad regime “underscoring the brutal and horrifying
barbarism of Bashar al-Assad” and that protecting such a dictator by Russia
even more egregious.
Refuting the Russian demands
of a new set of rules for chemical weapons investigators in Syria, the US “implored
the UN Security Council to renew the mandate of the JIM so that it may continue
to identify the perpetrators of these horrific attacks and send a clear message
that the use of chemical weapons will not be tolerated.” Last month Russia had
vetoed a proposal in UNSC to extend the JIM’s work in Syria but later on had
said that it would soon come up with its motion to set norms for JIM’s
extension.
Thousands of Syrians have
lost their lives in chemical attacks. Though under international pressure, in
2013, Syria signed the Convention on Chemical Weapons that bans production,
storage, use and transportation of chemical weapons, it has been alleged that
Syria never disclosed its full chemical arsenal for international inspection
and destruction.
And these allegations are not
baseless. An ABC News report earlier this year, quoting the White House, listed
about at least over a dozen chemical attacks in Syria since 2012. These include
the chemical attack of August 2013 in Aleppo which killed around 1500 people
and left thousands others crippled with symptoms of nerve gas attack. There was
an international hue and cry but the responsibility could not be affixed.
Also, a BBC report in May
this year, based on intelligence documents, said Syria was still making
chemical and biological weapons at three sites. The report further said that
both Russia and Iran were aware of it. Also, a Human Rights Watch report
published the same month said there was evidence of use of nerve gas by Syria
in multiple chemical attacks.
After Assad’s chemical attack
on April 4 in Idlib city’s Khan Sheikhun, the US had launched a missile attack
on a Syrian airbase that was reportedly used to launch the Idlib chemical
attack. It was the first direct US military attack on Syria. Syria had then
denied its hands and Russia had strongly defended it. On the contrary, it
blamed the Syrian rebels for the attack, like it does every time.
©SantoshChaubey
