UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Russia cast its 10th veto on Thursday of United Nations Security Council action on Syria since the war began in 2011, blocking a U.S.-drafted resolution to renew an international inquiry into who is to blame for chemical weapons attacks in Syria.
Representatives of Russia and Bolivia vote in the United Nations (UN) Security Council on a bid to renew an international inquiry into chemical weapons attacks in Syria during a meeting at the UN headquarters in New York, U.S., November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
The mandate for the joint inquiry by the U.N. and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which found the Syrian government used the banned nerve agent sarin in an April 4 attack, expires at midnight Thursday.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told reporters before the vote that she had been unable to speak to her Russian counterpart Vassily Nebenzia this week about the inquiry’s renewal. She said the United States had amended its draft several times in a bid to win Russian support for measure.
Russian Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Vasily Nebenzya speaks with Permanent Representative of France to the UN Francois Delattre before a meeting of the UN Security Council to vote on a bid to renew an international inquiry into chemical weapons attacks in Syria during a meeting at the UN headquarters in New York, U.S., November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
“For some reason the phones at the Russian mission aren’t working. We have tried to get a call with them and they’ve been too busy to talk to us this week and when I have tried to call Vassily for some reason he’s not available,” Haley said.
Ahead of the council vote, U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday urged the U.N. Security Council to renew the inquiry, saying it was needed to prevent Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from using chemical weapons.
“Need all on the U.N. Security Council to vote to renew the Joint Investigative Mechanism for Syria to ensure that Assad Regime does not commit mass murder with chemical weapons ever again,” Trump said in a note on Twitter.
While Russia agreed to the 2015 creation of the JIM, it has consistently questioned its findings, which also concluded that the Syrian government used chlorine as a weapon several times.
Syria agreed to destroy its chemical weapons in 2013 under a deal brokered by Russia and the United States.