SANCTIONS
Syria report gives Russia chance to take a stand on chemical weapons
Assad government has predictably rejected findings of watchdog and UN panel on sarin attack against villagers
Russia has an opportunity to uphold the moral authority of international sanctions against the use of chemical weapons and — in the unlikely event that it does — enhance its prestige as a leader in global health security. Everything depends on how President Vladimir Putin responds to the report by a joint panel of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the UN that found Syria’s air force responsible for weaponising and using sarin chemicals against villagers in the town of Khan Sheikhoun. Predictably, the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad has rejected the panel’s findings. Russia, Syria’s most important ally, wants to study the panel’s findings before it decides whether to support the renewal of the 2015 UN mandate to investigate the atrocious breach in chemical security. The UN enacted a resolution that banned the production and stockpiling of chemical weapons (including sarin gas) that went into effect on April29 1997. Syria and Russia are signatori...
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