Britain, France and the United States have presented a draft resolution to the UN Security Council condemning the suspected chemical attack in Syria and demanding a full investigation. The text, obtained by AFP, called on the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to report quickly on the findings of its fact-finding mission on the attack that killed at least 75 civilians, including children in a rebel-held town in Idlib province.
The measure was circulated to the 15 council members on the eve of an emergency meeting requested by France and Britain to discuss the attack carried out in the early hours yesterday in the town of Khan Sheikhun. Britain, France and the United States are pushing for a vote on the draft text during the meeting on Wednesday, but it remained unclear if Russia would support it, diplomats said. The draft resolution “condemns in the strongest terms the use of chemical weapons” in Syria, in particular the attack on Khan Sheikhun and expresses “outrage” over the use of toxic gases in the six-year war.
It requests that the joint UN-OPCW investigative panel set up to determine who is responsible for chemical attacks in Syria begin work immediately to identify the perpetrators of the latest attack. The text calls on Syria to provide flight plans, flight logs and other information on its military operations on the day of the assault.
Syria would allow UN and OPCW teams to visit air bases from which the attacks involving chemical weapons may have been launched, according to the text.