France’s ambassador to the United Nations, François Delattre, expressed doubts about claims by the Assad regime that it had surrendered all its stockpiles of chemical weapons. He expressed his country’s support for the formation of a new commission to investigate chemical attacks in Syria.
Delattre said that the international community should bring the use of chemical weapons in Syria to the spotlight and insist on punishing those responsible for chemical weapons attacks. He stressed the need to ensure complete destruction of Assad’s cache of chemical weapons.
France earlier called on the international community to punish those who are responsible for the use of chemical weapons in Syria, expressing support for the work of the UN-OPCW’s Joint Investigative Mechanism which was tasked with investigating the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
The United States announced that it would not stop pressıng the UN Security Council to renew the mandate for the UN-OPCW inquiry into the use of chemical weapons in Syria after Russia vetoed two resolutions submitted to extend the inquiry in mid-November.
In a statement published in November 17, the White Press secretary Sarah Sanders said: “On November 16, Russia vetoed the renewal of the United Nations-Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), once again protecting the Assad regime and terrorists who are using chemical weapons in Syria.”
The Syrian Coalition described the UN Security Council’s failure to extend JIM’s work as “shameful” and “damaging the reputation of the United Nations.”
The latest report of the UN-OPCW’s joint inquiry concluded that the Assad regime was responsible for the use of the banned sarin nerve agent in attacks on rebel-held areas, including the April 4 attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is an intergovernmental organization that promotes and verifies the adherence to the Chemical Weapons Convention which was adopted in 1997. The organization prohibits the use and proliferation of chemical weapons and requires their destruction with the aim of promoting global security and ensuring that the world is free of chemical weapons. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department + Agencies)
