The US ambassador to the world's chemical weapons watchdog called on Russia on Wednesday to stop “actively and consistently” shielding its ally Syria from accountability for its use of the deadly weapons.
Joseph Manso's comments follow last month’s release of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) report that blamed Damascus for the strike on the rebel-held town of Douma in 2018, which killed 43 people.
“I would say that at the very minimum, by extension, Russia bears responsibility for these atrocities,” Joseph Manso told reporters.
At least one helicopter of the Syrian “Tiger Forces” Elite Unit dropped two yellow cylinders containing toxic chlorine gas on two apartment buildings in a civilian-inhabited area in Douma, the report states.
OPCW investigators said in the report they had also received “credible information, corroborated through multiple sources” that Russian forces were located at Dumayr airbase alongside the Tiger Forces when the attack on Douma happened.
Mr Manso said the report “in itself does not address all of the issues that you need to address in the context of holding regime members accountable”.
However, it will eventually lead to more accountability, he said.
The UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu, said on Tuesday that an absence of accountability is a threat to international peace and security and “a danger to us all”.
Mr Manso also said his country will not normalise relations with the Assad regime and does not support others doing so until there is “irreversible progress towards a political resolution to the conflict in line the Security Council resolution 2254".
“We have not seen that progress to date,” he said.
