UN Security Council votes to act against chemical attacks

The resolution – which condemns the use of chlorine in Syria – allows for measures to be imposed under chapter 7 of the UN charter, which could include military force.

BEIRUT // The UN Security Council has adopted a US-drafted resolution condemning the use of chlorine in Syria and threatening measures if chemicals are used in future attacks.

The measure was endorsed on Friday by 14 of the 15 council members, with Venezuela abstaining in the vote.

The United States drafted the resolution that “condemns in the strongest terms any use of any toxic chemical, such as chlorine, as a weapon in the Syrian Arab Republic.”

While the measure does not single out the Damascus regime over the use of chlorine, Western powers have made clear that the evidence points to attacks being carried out by president Bashar Al Assad’s forces.

The text states that the council “decides in the event of future non-compliance ... to impose measures under chapter 7” of the UN charter, which provides for sanctions and possibly military force.

A report by the chemical watchdog, Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, in January concluded “with a high degree of confidence” that chlorine gas had been used in attacks on three villages in Syria last year.

At least 13 people died in the attacks that were carried out from April to August, according to the report by The Hague-based organisation.

While the OPCW did not attribute responsibility for the chlorine attacks, it cited 32 witnesses who saw or heard the sound of helicopters as bombs struck, and 29 who smelled chlorine. Only the Syrian regime has helicopters.

The council’s decision came as the UN said it had been forced to withdraw aid from nine Syrian refugee camps in Turkey due to a lack of funds, calling on donors to step up.

“Unfortunately, in February, we were forced to ask the Turkish government to take over assistance in nine camps where we could not continue providing aid because we lack funds,” said World Food Programme spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs.

Ms Byrs said WFP was facing a US$71million (Dh260.8m) shortfall for its aid programme in Turkey this year.

“Getting more funding is really essential,” she said.

The UN agency needs US$9 million each month to provide hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees in the country with food aid, she said.

Also Friday, Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate confirmed that its top field commander was killed in an airstrike that targeted a meeting of the group’s senior leadership.

Abu Anas Al Shami, the spokesman for Jabhat Al Nusra, was quoted on a prominent militant website as saying that Thursday’s airstrike in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib killed Abu Hommam Al Shami, described as the group’s “military commander.”

Abu Hommam’s death was first reported a day earlier by Syria’s SANA state news agency and by the Britain-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria, said that other senior Al Nusra leaders were also killed in the attack.

The two Al Shamis – Abu Hommam and Abu Anas – are not related. Their shared name in Arabic means “the Syrian.”

The fate of Al Nusra’s overall leader, Abu Mohammad Al Golani, was not clear, the Observatory said, although there were reports that he had been in the area of the attack. The website quotes the Al Nusra spokesman as saying three others were killed in Thursday’s airstrike, including two of Abu Hommam’s bodyguards. It did not provide further information on the identity of the third fatality.

It also remained unclear who conducted the airstrike. SANA claimed it was the Syrian military, while activists and Al Nusra said it was the US-led coalition. A press release from US Central Command listed a total of four coalition air strikes conducted on Thursday in Syria, but mentioned none in Idlib province.

Meanwhile, the European Union imposed additional sanctions against Syria on Friday, targeting backers of Mr Al Assad as the bloody conflict gets worse with no prospect of a peace deal.

“Seven persons and six entities providing support to the Syrian regime as well as benefiting from it have been targeted,” a statement said.

“This brings the number of persons and entities targeted by EU sanctions over the violent repression against the civilian population in Syria to 218 persons and 69 entities.”

The move follows a December decision to extend sanctions to hit Mr Al Assad and his supporters.

The European Union will publish the names of the individuals and entities in its Official Journal on Saturday, bringing the measures into effect.

More than 220,000 people are believed to have died in Syria since a March 2011 popular uprising against Mr Al Assad turned into a bloody sectarian conflict which has displaced millions and destroyed much of the country.

* Associated Press and Agence France-Presse