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Russia urges UN action on Syria chemical attacks

Russian Ambassador to UN Vitaly Churkin (© AFP)

Russia has called on the UN Security Council to bring to justice those responsible for the wave of chlorine attacks in Syria.

On Wednesday, Russian Ambassador to UN Vitaly Churkin asked the Security Council to adopt “the most effective ways to accomplish” this mission.

The Russian diplomat said that the UN body could issue a binding resolution for legal action against the perpetrators of the chemical attacks, adding, “We support the need to find those people who are behind it.”

The picture dated March 17, 2015 shows a young man breathing with an oxygen mask at a clinic in the village of Sarmin, southeast of Idlib, the capital of Syria's northwestern province of Idlib, following a gas attack in the area. (© AFP)

 

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has carried out fact-finding missions in Syria and found out that chlorine gas has been used in attacks, but it has not assigned blame.

Mainstream Western and Arab media accuse the Syrian government of using chemical arms including chlorine against both civilians and terrorist groups operating in the Arab country.

However, it has been said that anti-government terrorist groups were behind the two major chemical attacks, which took place in Khan al-Assal and in Eastern Ghouta near the capital Damascus, in 2013.

A UN investigation also indicated that terrorists had used sarin gas--a deadly nerve agent-- in Khan al-Assal.

A United Nations weapons expert collects samples during an investigation into a 2013 suspected chemical weapons strike near Damascus. (© AFP)

 

In April 2014, American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh said al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra was behind sarin gas attack in Ghouta, noting that the terrorist group received help from the Turkish and Saudi intelligence services.

More than 220,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011.

YH/KA/HMV


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