The State Department and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley condemned the Russian government this week following reports of a new Syrian government attack on civilians using chemical weapons. Russia guaranteed that Damascus has destroyed its entire chemical weapons arsenal in 2014.
Syrian charity groups and NGOs reported this week that hospitals in Idlib, where dictator Bashar al-Assad has launched an offensive against remaining rebel elements there, had treated at least 11 individuals that showed signs of being exposed to chlorine gas, according to Reuters. Activists on the ground reported that Syrian aircraft had dropped two chemical gas barrels on Saturday preceding the diagnoses of chemical weapons exposures on Monday.
The bombs reportedly fell a day after anti-Assad rebels, some associated with jihadist groups, shot down a Russian military aircraft over the skies of Saraqeb, Idlib province. While the pilot survived the crash by ejecting from the vehicle, Syrian officials say an al-Qaeda affiliate captured and killed him.
These reports follow witness reports procured by Human Rights Watch that indicate Assad forces have also used chlorine gas on civilians in Eastern Ghouta, another rebel stronghold.
Russian officials announced that the country had withdrawn from its role in the Syrian civil war in late December, yet observers have not seen a significant decrease in Russian military activity in defense of Assad’s forces since the announcement. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has referred to the Russian withdrawal announcement as a “ruse.”
U.S. officials were quick to note that any confirmation of chemical weapons use by the Assad regime in Syria would constitute a Russian government failure, as President Vladimir Putin had served as guarator for a plan in 2013 that would result in the Syrian government dumping or destroying its entire chemical weapons arsenal.
“The United States is gravely alarmed by continued allegations of the use of chlorine gas by the Syrian Regime to terrorize innocent civilians, this time in Idlib Province near Saraqib,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement Monday. “The Secretary [of State Rex Tillerson] noted last month in Paris that Russia ultimately bears responsibility for … Syrians targeted with chemical weapons since Russia became involved in Syria.”
“By shielding the Syrian regime from accountability, Russia has not lived up to its commitments,” she added. “The use of chemical weapons by all parties in Syria must unequivocally stop. The people of Syria are suffering; the rest of the world is watching.”
Ambassador Haley also made remarks condemning a Russian draft resolution at the U.N. Security Council intended to address the chemical weapons issue.
“For their new investigation, Russia wants to be able to cherry pick the investigators. It wants to insert unnecessary and arbitrary investigative standards,” she said. “And it wants the Security Council to be able to review all of the findings of this investigation and decide what makes it into the final report. This is not an impartial mechanism. It is a way to whitewash the findings of the last investigation that Russia desperately wants to bury.”
“Few things have horrified my country and the world as much as the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons against its people. This Council has been outspoken on ending Syria’s use of chemical weapons, and yet, they continue,” Haley noted.
U.N. High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu has also called for a “meaningful response” to the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian civil war, though it remains unclear what a “meaningful response” to a crisis would mean for the U.N.
Russian Ambassador to the U.N. Vassily Nebenzia labeled Haley’s words as “slander” and condemned outrage surrounding the alleged attack as intended to “basically accuse the Syrian government of chemical weapons use where no perpetrators have been identified.”
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