China prefers unanimous UN support for chemical weapons investigation
UNITED NATIONS — Disagreeing with Britain, France and the United States on how an investigation by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) would be conducted in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhun, Russia blocked and China abstained from voting for a draft United Nations Security Council resolution preemptively declaring the attack to be chemical in nature.
Ten countries voted in favor, Russia and Bolivia against, with China, Kazakhstan and Ethiopia abstaining.
Russia's UN Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov told the council before the vote that a resolution was unnecessary, and according to The Associated Press, the draft put forward by the Western powers pre-judged that the Syrian government was responsible for the April 4 attack on Khan Sheikhoun in which nearly 90 people died.
Liu Jieyi, China’s permanent representative to the UN explained that for the lack investigation isn’t a moral disagreement, but rather a technical disagreement.
"There's no distinction in the use of chemical weapons. The use of chemical weapons by anyone in any place should be condemned and should be investigated into and the perpetrators should be brought to justice,” the ambassador told Rudaw after the eighth veto by Russia since the start of the civil war in 2011.
Russia has criticized previous chemical weapons probes in Syria because investigators failed to visit the actual sites.
"But we need to base everything on facts, facts that we can prove stand the test of the time of the facts,” Jieyi added.
The Syrian regime and opposition have asked for an independent investigation, which wouldn’t require a UN resolution.
"The OPCW is doing nothing, for reasons unknown," Safronkov said.
Safronkov said during US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit to Moscow on Wednesday, Moscow proposed that the US and Russia jointly request an OPCW investigation.
Tillerson said he expected Washington to have a “constructive reaction” to the request.
The OPCW oversees the global endeavor to permanently and verifiably eliminate chemical weapons, in accordance with the Chemical Weapons Convention, as signed by Russia in 1993.
"And also we need to have a unanimous Security Council resolution for [an] investigation to really be based on unanimous Security Council support,” Jieyi said.
The OPCW’s executive committee convenes on Thursday at its headquarters in the Hague.
Russia has also insisted that investigators be chosen from around the world.