Russia Prevents Extending Mandate of Investigation into Syria’s Chemical Attack

Russian Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Vladimir Safronkov speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting following a vote on a resolution to ban the supply of helicopters to the Syrian government and to blacklist Syrian military commanders over accusations of toxic gas attacks at U.N. headquarters in New York City, U.S., February 28, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Segar
Russian Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Vladimir Safronkov speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting following a vote on a resolution to ban the supply of helicopters to the Syrian government and to blacklist Syrian military commanders over accusations of toxic gas attacks at U.N. headquarters in New York City, U.S., February 28, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Segar
TT
20

Russia Prevents Extending Mandate of Investigation into Syria’s Chemical Attack

Russian Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Vladimir Safronkov speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting following a vote on a resolution to ban the supply of helicopters to the Syrian government and to blacklist Syrian military commanders over accusations of toxic gas attacks at U.N. headquarters in New York City, U.S., February 28, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Segar
Russian Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Vladimir Safronkov speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting following a vote on a resolution to ban the supply of helicopters to the Syrian government and to blacklist Syrian military commanders over accusations of toxic gas attacks at U.N. headquarters in New York City, U.S., February 28, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Segar

Russia used its veto power on the United Nations Security Council Tuesday, preventing the renewal of the mandate for a mission that investigates the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

It was the ninth time that Russia has used its veto to stop international action on Syria.

The investigation by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons – known as the Joint Investigative Mechanism – was established by the 15-member UN Security Council in 2015. Its mandate was renewed in 2016 for another year and is due to expire in mid-November.

The JIM is expected to issue its report by Oct. 26 on the party responsible for an attack on April 4 on the town of Khan Sheikhoun, where 87 people, including 30 children, were killed due to Sarin gaz.

In a separate report, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed that Sarin gas, or a similar material, was used in Khan Sheikhoun, but without specifying the party responsible for the attack, since this issues falls within the authority of the JIM.

Russia says the Sarin gas found in Khan Sheikhoun was not caused by a raid by the Syrian air force, but probably by terrorists exploding a bomb.

However, western countries stress that the Syrian regime was responsible for using Sarin in Idlib.

The United States, Britain and other countries condemned Moscow’s veto decision, describing it as an attempt to protect the perpetrators of the Khan Sheikhoun massacre.



Israeli Likud Party Ministers Urge Netanyahu to Annex West Bank

Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
TT
20

Israeli Likud Party Ministers Urge Netanyahu to Annex West Bank

Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)

Cabinet ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party called on Wednesday for Israel to annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank before the Knesset recesses at the end of the month.

They issued a petition ahead of Netanyahu's meeting next week with US President Donald Trump, where discussions are expected to center on a potential 60-day Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas.

The petition was signed by 15 cabinet ministers and Amir Ohana, speaker of the Knesset, Israel's parliament.

There was no immediate response from the prime minister's office. Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, long a confidant of Netanyahu, did not sign the petition. He has been in Washington since Monday for talks on Iran and Gaza.

"We ministers and members of Knesset call for applying Israeli sovereignty and law immediately on Judea and Samaria," they wrote, using the biblical names for the West Bank captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

Their petition cited Israel's recent achievements against both Iran and Iran's allies and the opportunity afforded by the strategic partnership with the US and support of Trump.

It said the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel demonstrated that the concept of Jewish settlement blocs alongside the establishment of a Palestinian state poses an existential threat to Israel.

"The task must be completed, the existential threat removed from within, and another massacre in the heart of the country must be prevented," the petition stated.

Most countries regard Jewish settlements in the West Bank, many of which cut off Palestinian communities from one another, as a violation of international law.

With each advance of Israeli settlements and roads, the West Bank becomes more fractured, further undermining prospects for a contiguous land on which Palestinians could build a sovereign state long envisaged in Middle East peacemaking.

Israel's pro-settler politicians have been emboldened by the return to the White House of Trump, who has proposed Palestinians leave Gaza, a suggestion widely condemned across the Middle East and beyond.