The UN Security Council is approving a groundbreaking international investigative body that will be allowed to establish who is responsible for chemical attacks in Syria
for the first time, a diplomat said on Friday.
Until now, the UN and the global chemical weapons watchdog, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, were only able to investigate attacks without laying blame on the Government or rebels. The new body is the result of rare cooperation between the United States and Russia on Syria’s conflict, which is well into its fifth year.
A council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly,
said no council member on Friday objected to a letter to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in support of the
UN-OPCW joint investigative mechanism.
The letter, obtained by The Associated Press, is signed by Russian ambassador and current council president Vitaly Churkin and authorises Ban’s recommendations for a three-member independent panel be backed by experts with the freedom to go anywhere in
Syria to identify those responsible for attacks.