Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
New York, SANA- Russia vetoed on Friday a Japanese-draft U.N. Security Council resolution to extend the UN-OPCW Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) on chemical weapons in Syria for 30 days.
Bolivia voted against the draft resolution, while China abstained.
Russian permanent representative to the UN Vassily Nebenzia said, in a speech following the session, that Russia could not support a proposal on a short “technical extension” for this mechanism as any extension of the JIM mandate is only possible if some fundamental mistakes are corrected ”.
There can be no other way after the JIM’s leadership disgraced itself with its fictitious investigation into the sarin use incident in Khan Shaykhun and signed off on baseless accusations against Syria, the Russian Diplomat added.
Nebenzia said that the Japanese draft resolution put huge challenges in front of the UN Secretary General on setting proposals which reflect the viewpoints of the UN Security Council’s member-states.
He accused some member states of adopting a deliberate misleading discourse and portraying a falsified image of the Russian stances towards the work of the JIM.
The Russian Foreign Ministry announced that the extension of JIM should be conditioned to get lessons from its negative work and enhance this mechanism, holding the US and the countries, which supported Washington’s stance at the UN Security Council, responsible for stopping the work of this mechanism.
- Zain/ Mazen