US hopes for UN vote on new Syria toxic gas inquiry next week
The United States wants the United Nations Security Council to create a new inquiry into who is to blame for chemical weapons attacks in Syria, and US Ambassador Nikki Haley said on Thursday she hopes to put it to a vote as early as next week.
A previous international investigation, known as the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), ended in November after Russia blocked for the third time in a month attempts to renew the inquiry, which Moscow has slammed as flawed.
Russia then in January proposed its own draft resolution to create a new inquiry, but has never put it to a vote. The United States slammed the Russian text as a bid to distract from a French initiative to target perpetrators of toxic gas attacks.
