Press Statement
Khaled Khoja
President of the Syrian Coalition
August 8, 2015
Today UN Security Council adopted resolution 2235 (2015) giving the greenlight for the establishment of a Joint Investigative Mechanism to identify those responsible for the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
The National Coalition for Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces welcomes all efforts to bring those responsible for all chemical weapons attacks in Syria to justice and affirms that almost two years after the horrible massacre that left more than 1,400 victims dead and thousands more injured in Eastern Ghouta near Damascus in August 2013, the perpetrators are still at large committing more atrocities in all parts of Syria including more than 120 chlorine attacks on Syrian civilians since then. Resolution 2235 should have not ignored the fact that the real criminals are those officials in the Syrian regime, including Bashar al-Assad, who had the capability and full authority to order the attacks and who later only partially handed the crime weapons to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) under pressure paused by the adoption of UNSC Resolution 2118. The UNSC was obliged under resolution 2118 to impose tougher measures against the Syrian regime under Chapter VII of UN Charter as the continuous use of chemical weapons on a smaller scale pose credible concerns that the conditions outlined in the resolution were not fully met.
The National Coalition emphasises that it is an International responsibility to protect civilians in Syria from the atrocities of the regime and it looks forward to the new mechanism to bring to conclusion this painful and inhumane chapter in the Syrian people suffering if faith in the UN-led political solution is to be restored.
