Vice-president of the Syrian Coalition Muwaffaq Nyrabiya called upon the UN Security Council to refer those who were proved to be responsible for chemical attacks in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in line with international law and international humanitarian law.
He warned that blocking this move will encourage the culture of impunity prevalent in Syria and will give a green light to perpetrators to carry out more crimes using internationally banned weapons.
At a meeting between members of the Syrian Coalition’s political committee and representatives of Syrian civil society organizations in Istanbul on Friday, Nyrabiya pointed out that the latest UN report on the use of chemical weapons in Syria suggests that the Assad regime is responsible for other attacks, most notably the sarin attack on eastern Ghouta in August 21, 2013.
The meeting discussed mechanisms to put pressure on the international community to hold accountable those responsible for war crimes in Syria.
Tabled for discussion were also the Syrian opposition’s vision for negotiations and the transitional process in Syria.
The team from the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) that was mandated to investigate chemical attacks in Syria found that the Assad regime was behind the chlorine attacks in the towns of Talmenes on April 21, 2014 and Sarmin on March 16, 2015.
According to the report released by the joint UN-OPCW team on Wednesday, ISIS was responsible for a mustard gas attack on Marea in northern Aleppo on August 21, 2015. The report said that ISIS “was the only entity with the ability, capability, motive and the means to use sulphur mustard.” (Source: Syrian Coalition)
