New U.N. Probe Of Syrian Chemical Weapons Use To Name Perpetrators

[Purveyor]

Source: LA TIMES

Russia has backed off objections to a United Nations probe to determine who carried out chemical weapons attacks in Syria, allowing the Security Council to create a new investigative unit on Thursday empowered to assign blame.

The Kremlin has previously used or threatened to use its veto power as a permanent member of the Security Council to limit investigation of deadly chlorine and sarin gas attacks in Syria's civil war to confirming that they occurred without identifying the perpetrators.

Russia holds the Security Council's rotating presidency for September, and its U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, delivered a letter to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday in support of creating a joint investigative unit with the U.N.-affiliated international toxic weapons watchdog, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Creation of an independent panel tasked with determining who or what forces used banned chemical weapons in Syria had been proposed before but blocked by Russia. The country is one of Syrian President Bashar Assad's few allies, and the Kremlin is thought to have objected to the effort to name those responsible for fear the investigation would lead to Assad.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-syria-chemical-weapons-un-probe-20150910-story.html

[geek tragedy]

1. Hmmmmmmmm. nt

[leveymg]

2. We know that list doesn't include the Syrian Defence Minister. He was overheard freaking out the

night of the attack in his intercepted telephone conversation with the heads of chemical weapons units demanding to know who had ordered these attacks.

So if the Defense Minister wasn't in the chain of command why do we assume the head of state was?

[MisterP]

3. well as we all know anti-Assad fighters would NEVER stoop to such atrocities

*whuh* sorry, I was dreaming and thought it was 2013 again

[pampango]

4. "the Kremlin is thought to have objected ... for fear the investigation would lead to Assad"

I think it is highly unlikely that the Syrian government is behind the recent chemical attacks. Putin pressured Assad to give up his chemical weapons. I doubt Bashar would dis Putin so directly.

It is much more likely to be coming from ISIS.

Two years ago, Bashar al-Assad agreed with the US and Russia to give up his chemical weapons stockpiles, which would then be destroyed. But a report has now found a massive gap between the volume of weapons declared and the ones that were actually eliminated, and it’s thought IS has got hold of at least some these unaccounted-for stockpiles. (Libya has also been suggested as a possible source.)

... IS may well be starting to incorporate chemical warfare into its strategy. The fighting in Iraq and Syria has given the group numerous opportunities to get hold of these weapons and, if the allegations and evidence that have been gathered so far turn out to be accurate, it is now using them regularly.

http://www.juancole.com/2015/09/campaign-chemical-international.html