Politics
09:10, 06-Feb-2018
Accusations fly as UNSC debates possible new chemical gas attack in Syria
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The United Nations Security Council met on Monday to discuss reports that chemical weapons have been recently used in northwest Syria, and disunity again reigned supreme.
Rescue workers and doctors said on Monday that chemicals dropped from the air caused at least nine people to suffer breathing problems in an attack in the rebel-held Idlib Province.
The Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), a charity which supports hospitals in Syria, said its doctors in Idlib reported 11 patients "with symptoms indicative to usage of chlorine".
Reuters cited Radi Saad, who is a member of the chemical weapons team of the White Helmets civil defense group that operates in rebel-held parts of Syria, as saying that two barrels containing chemical gas had been dropped from helicopters on Sunday night.
Air raids have intensified on rebel-held towns and cities in Idlib Province since Sunday night, a day after rebels shot down a Russian warplane and killed its pilot.
The Syrian government has consistently denied using chlorine or other chemical weapons during Syria's conflict, now approaching its eighth year.
Accusations were flying during Monday's UN Security Council meeting, CGTN's Nick Harper said from the UN headquarters in New York.
The US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley accused Russia of shielding the Syrian government for its alleged use of chemical weapons.
In November, Russia voted against continuing the Joint Investigative Mechanism, an inquiry run by the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The veto followed an investigation that blamed Bashar al-Assad’s government of carrying out sarin attacks on its own people.
Russia has since proposed a new investigation team.
But Haley said the proposal was not impartial, and would see Moscow "cherry pick" investigators and review the team’s findings before deciding what is officially reported – something she said would be a "whitewash".
Her Russian counterpart Vassily Nebenzia accused Haley of "artificially heating up" the chemical weapons issue.
The US is holding up a "propagandist campaign" and using the meeting to "slander" Russia, Nebenzia said.
China said it supports the establishment of a new Joint Investigative Mechanism. Ambassador Wu Haitao said it was "quite critical" to bring perpetrators to justice and prevent the future chemical attacks.
The US has put forward a statement for the Council to jointly condemn recent chemical weapon attacks. But Russia said it cannot support it in its current form as it "basely accuses" the Syria government of carrying out the attacks.
(With input from Reuters)