On
Syria, Chemical Weapons Deaths
Trigger UNSC Draft, Here, and
Meeting, Kaag in the Wind
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
April 4 – After the deaths by
chemical weapons in Syria,
when the UN Security Council
convened on April 4 for its
meeting on Darfur, the
Ambassadors of the UK then
Sweden called for an emergency
Council meeting. Inner City
Press video
here. With the meeting
then set for April 5, the
night before the United
States, UK and France
circulated a draft resolution:
"Recalling the Protocol for
the Prohibition of the Use in
War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous
or other Gases, and of
Bacteriological Methods of
Warfare, and the Convention on
the Prohibition of the
Development, Production,
Stockpiling and Use of
Chemical Weapons and on their
Destruction (CWC) ratified by
the Syrian Arab Republic on 14
September 2013, and the
Council’s resolutions 1540
(2004), 2118 (2013), 2209
(2015), 2235 (2015), 2314
(2016), and 2319 (2016),
Expressing its horror at
the reported use of chemical
weapons in the Khan Shaykhun
area of southern Idlib in the
Syrian Arab Republic on 4
April 2017 causing large-scale
loss of life and injuries,
affirming that the use of
chemical weapons constitutes a
serious violation of
international law, and
stressing that those
responsible for any use of
chemical weapons must be held
accountable,
Noting the Organization for
the Prohibition of Chemical
Weapons (OPCW) has announced,
in addition to its ongoing
investigation, that its Fact
Finding Mission (FFM) is in
the process of gathering and
analysing information on this
incident from all available
sources and will report to the
OPCW Executive Council,
Recalling that in
resolution 2118 (2013) the
Council decided that the
Syrian Arab Republic shall not
use, develop, produce,
otherwise acquire, stockpile
or retain chemical weapons or
transfer, directly or
indirectly, chemical weapons,
to other States or non-State
actors and underscored that no
party in Syria should use,
develop produce acquire,
stockpile, retain or transfer
chemical weapons,
Determining that the use
of chemical weapons in the
Syria Arab Republic represents
a threat to international
peace and security,
1. Condemns in the strongest
terms and use of chemical
weapons in the Syrian Arab
Republic, in particular the
attack on Khan Shaykhun
reported on 4 April 2017,
expresses its outrage that
individuals continue to be
killed and injured by chemical
weapons in the Syrian Arab
Republic, and expresses its
determination that those
responsible must be held
accountable;
2. Expresses its full
support to the OPCW Fact
Finding Mission investigation
and requests that it report
the results of its
investigation as soon as
possible;
3. Recalls paragraph 9
of resolution 2235 (2015),
which requested the FFM to
collaborate with the JIM to
provide full access to all the
information and evidence
obtained or prepared by the
FFM, and stresses that the JIM
should begin to fulfill its
mandate alongside the FFM as
it seeks to determine whether
the incident on April 4 2017
involved the use of chemicals
as weapons;
4. Recalls that in its
resolutions 2118 and 2235 it
decided that the Syrian Arab
Republic and all parties in
Syria shall cooperate fully
with the OPCW and the United
Nations including the Joint
Investigation Mechanism;
5. Emphasizes that this
includes the obligation upon
the Syrian Arab Republic to
provide the JIM and FFM with
the following:
(a) flight plans, flight
logs, and any other
information on air operations,
including all flight plans or
flight logs filed on April 4
2017;
(b) names of all
individuals in command of any
helicopter squadrons;
(c) arrange meetings
requested including with
generals or other officers,
within no more than five days
of the date on which such
meeting is requested;
(d) immediately provide
access to relevant air bases
from which the JIM or the FFM
believe attacks involving
chemicals as weapons may have
been launched
6. Requests the
Secretary-General to report on
whether the information and
access described in paragraph
5 has been provided in his
reports to the Security
Council every 30 days pursuant
to paragraph 12 of resolution
2118.
7. Recalls its decision
in response to violations of
resolution 2118 to impose
measures under Chapter VII of
the United Nations charter."
Inner City Press will cover
the meeting(s).
As
de Mistura trudges on with a
short term UN extension, he
did not say if he is applying
to head the UN Development
Program, and thus to move on
from his Syria post. Inner
City Press first
reported that - and the
interest of Sigrid
Kaag, who blocks Inner
City Press on Twitter, deemed
fine by the UN's
holdover Deputy Spokesman
Farhan Haq.
On March 8,
before the US' April
presidency of the Security
Council, US Ambassador Nikki
Haley was asked of Iran
involvement in talks. She
paused, then said there are
some not at the table who
should be. Watch this site.
In Geneva for
the Syria talks as in New
York, the UN made a point of
telling those with "temporary
accreditation" that they could
not get into the building
after 7 pm, even with a
stakeout scheduled for 6:30
pm. The Free
UN Coalition for Access
(FUNCA)
objects to the UN's two-tier
system for correspondents,
which in New York meant for
example that Inner City Press
which covered Peru's
President's meeting with
Antonio Guterres was Banned
from the area of the UN where
he spoke to the media
afterward. (But see this
Periscope). Ban
Censorship in 2017.
Even before
February 25, multiple UN
sources sounded a dissonant
note to Inner City Press.
As
exclusively reported
February 2, the sources had
told Inner City Press that de
Mistura is in fact angling to
replace Helen Clark atop the
UN Development Program or
UNDP. (The UN Spokesperson's
office, as usual, is in
untransparent denial mode.
Also in the mix are, among
others, David Miliband, Segolene
Royal and Bert Koenders - or
even Sigrid "The Blocker" Kaag).
Inner City
Press first reported from its
sources that seeking to
replace de Mistura as UN Syria
envoy is Sigrid Kaag, long
time envoy in Lebanon. (We'd
ask Kaag to confirm or deny,
but again it turns out Kaag blocks
Inner City Press on Twitter, click
here to view: strange,
for a publicly paid UN
official.) We'll have more on
this.
When de Mistura
took questions on January 31,
Inner City Press asked him
among other things if the
Trump administration's
proposal for safe zones in
Syria (and Yemen) had been
discussed. Video here.
No, de
Mistura said, US Ambassador to
the UN Nikki Haley hadn't
raised it. Some wondered if
that reflects the irrelevance
to which the UN has sunk.
We'll see.
***
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