LONDON: British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has accused Russia of trying to hide the use of sarin gas by Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria, and said Moscow’s behavior was undermining the consensus against chemical weapons.
A UN report released on Thursday found Assad’s regime to blame for a chemical attack in Khan Sheikhun, Syria which killed dozens of people in April and prompted a retaliatory US missile strike.
Commenting on the release of that report, Johnson called on the international community to hold Assad’s government to account.
He also launched a fierce attack on Russia, which helped broker a deal in 2013 under which Assad agreed to destroy Syria’s chemical weapon stockpile.
“Russia has repeatedly attempted to disrupt efforts to get to the truth of the Khan Sheikhun attack,” he said in a statement.
“Russia has consistently chosen to cover up for Assad.”
He added: “This behavior can only undermine the global consensus against the use of chemical weapons. I call on Russia to stop covering up for its abhorrent ally and keep its own commitment to ensure that chemical weapons are never used again.”
Russia has defended the Syrian leader against US allegations that his forces carried out the attack, saying there was no evidence. Russia said the chemicals that killed civilians belonged to rebels, not Assad’s regime.
The Syrian regime has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons during the country’s more than six-year civil war. Moscow backs Syrian regime forces against the opposition in the war.
The chemical weapons investigation mechanism was unanimously created by the 15-member UN Security Council, which includes Russia, in 2015 and renewed in 2016 for another year. Its mandate is due to expire in mid-November, and Russia on Tuesday vetoed a proposal to further extend its mandate.
Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia said Russia would consider revisiting the mandate extension after Thursday’s report was discussed.
Council resolution
The British ambassador to the UN said the Security Council was discussing a resolution to impose accountability after the report blamed the Syrian regime.
Johnson’s comments come only weeks after his Foreign Ministry announced he would travel to Moscow later this year to discuss international security issues.
Johnson has previously described diplomatic relations with Russia as “difficult” but said the British government had a policy of engaging with Moscow “to further mutual interests where they exist.”
In April, following the sarin gas attack, he canceled what would have been the first visit to Russia in five years by a British foreign secretary.
Human Rights Watch urged the international community to slap sanctions on the Syrian regime after the UN investigators blamed Assad’s regime for the sarin gas attack .
“The (UN) Security Council should move swiftly to ensure accountability by imposing sanctions on individuals and entities responsible for chemical attacks in Syria,” the New York-based rights watchdog said in a statement.
Ole Solvang, deputy emergencies director at HRW, said the panel’s report “should end the deception and false theories that have been spread by the Syrian government.”
“Syria’s repeated use of chemical weapons poses a serious threat to the international ban against the use of chemical weapons,” Solvang said.
“All countries have an interest in sending a strong signal that these atrocities will not be tolerated.”
Geopolitical issues
Russia criticized the UN report, with a deputy foreign minister saying it contained inconsistencies and unverified evidence.
“Even the first cursory read shows that many inconsistencies, logical discrepancies, using doubtful witness accounts and unverified evidence... all of this is still (in the report),” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Interfax news agency.
Ryabkov said other nations were seeking to use the report to “resolve their own strategic geopolitical issues in Syria.”
Russia would analyze the findings and publish a response soon, he added.
France welcomed the results of the investigation.
“Impunity is not acceptable,” Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said.
The expert panel’s report came as the UN renewed its warning that Assad has no role in Syria’s future.
UN experts have also accused the Syrian regime of launching chlorine gas attacks in the north of the country in 2014 and 2015.
