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-World News | Tue
Feb 28, 2017 | 5:22pm GMT
Russia, China
block U.N. sanctions on Syria over gas attacks
Russian Deputy
Ambassador to the United Nations Vladimir Safronkov raises his arm to vote
against a United Nations Security Council 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.
By Michelle
Nichols | UNITED NATIONS
UNITED NATIONS
Russia on Tuesday cast its seventh veto to protect the Syrian government from
United Nations Security Council action, blocking a bid by Western powers to
impose sanctions over accusations of chemical weapons attacks during the
six-year Syrian conflict.
China backed
Russia and cast its sixth veto on Syria. Russia had said the vote on the
resolution, drafted by France, Britain and the United States, would harm
U.N.-led peace talks between the warring Syrian parties in Geneva, which began
last week.
Nine council
members voted in favor of the resolution, Bolivia voted against, while Egypt,
Ethiopia and Kazakhstan abstained. A resolution needs nine votes in favor and
no vetoes by the United States, France, Russia, Britain or China to be adopted.
Russian President
Vladimir Putin described the draft resolution on Tuesday as "totally
inappropriate."
"For my
friends in Russia, this resolution is very appropriate," U.S. Ambassador
to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the council after the vote.
"It is a sad
day on the Security Council when members start making excuses for other member
states killing their own people. The world is definitely a more dangerous place,"
she said.
The vote was one
of the first confrontations at the United Nations between Russia and the United
States since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January, pledging to
build closer ties with Moscow.
Russia's Deputy
U.N. Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov described the statements made against Moscow
in the Security Council as "outrageous" and said "God will judge
you."
Western powers
put forward the resolution in response to the results of an investigation by
the U.N. and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
The international
inquiry found Syrian government forces were responsible for three chlorine gas
attacks and that Islamic State militants had used mustard gas.
British U.N.
Ambassador Matthew Rycroft told the council before the vote: "This is
about taking a stand when children are poisoned, it's that simple."
Chlorine's use as
a weapon is banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Syria joined in
2013. If inhaled, chlorine gas turns to hydrochloric acid in the lungs and can
kill by burning lungs and drowning victims in body fluids.
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Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad's government has denied its forces have used chemical weapons.
Russia has questioned the results of the U.N./OPCW inquiry and long said there
was not enough proof for the Security Council to take any action.
French U.N. Ambassador
Francois Delattre said the failure by the council to act would "send a
message of impunity."
The draft
resolution would have banned the sale or supply of helicopters to the Syrian
government because the U.N./OPCW inquiry found Syrian government forces had
used helicopters to drop barrel bombs containing chlorine gas.
It also proposed
targeted sanctions - a travel ban and asset freeze - on 11 Syrian military
commanders and officials, as well as on 10 government an
