Moscow proposes new probe into attacks
25 January, 2018
Russia proposed on Tuesday that the U.N. Security Council create a new inquiry into who is to blame for chemical weapons attacks in Syria, a move the United States slammed as a bid to distract from a French initiative to target perpetrators of such strikes.
Earlier on Tuesday in Paris dozens of countries agreed to work to preserve evidence and impose sanctions on those responsible after Russia ended in November an international inquiry into chemical weapons attacks in Syria.
At a meeting of the 15-member U.N. Security Council requested by Moscow following the Paris meeting, Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia circulated a draft resolution to create a new international investigative body to replace the previous U.N.-mandated inquiry, which he said was a “complete failure.”
Nebenzia said the inquiry would use “irreproachable and corroborated information received from transparent and credible sources ... to establish evidence for the Security Council to identify perpetrators in the use of chemical weapons.” He did not say if or when the council could vote on such a move.
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