Russia Blocks US Draft Resolution on Extending UN-OPCW JIM’s Mandate for Investigating Use of Chemical Weapons in Syria

NEW YORK, (ST)-Russia on Thursday vetoed a US draft resolution on extending the mandate of the UN OPCW Joint Investigation Mechanism (JIM) for investigating the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

Bolivia voted against the draft while Egypt and China abstained.

Before the start of voting, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya announced that the Russian side would withdraw its draft resolution on the same issue because the Security Council had refused to satisfy Moscow’s request to consider the US draft first.

 “I would like to make a proposal to withdraw the draft resolution that Russia has submitted,” Nebenzia told the UN Security Council.

Last month, Russia blocked a similar draft resolution.

The JIM’s mandate expires on November 17.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the US draft of the UN Security Council’s resolution on prolonging the mandate of the Joint Investigative Mechanism of the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for investigating the use of chemical weapons in Syria is unacceptable and it has no chances of being adopted.

“They are trying to convince us that the mechanism is working in a right way, and this is full disrespect of our experts’ intellectual skills. We have distributed all our detailed questions and analysis and they are available to the public,” Lavrov said.

Hamda Mustafa