Veto Moscow against research chemical weapons

Russia has vetoed the UN Security Council on extending an investigation into the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

The American president Donald Trump had called Moscow earlier in the evening via Twitter to agree to extend the mandate of the Inquiry Committee (JIM). That is a joint committee of the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Russia agreed to the formation of the JIM in 2015, but then again and again questioned the findings of the inquiry committee. He concluded, among other things, that the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad was behind a poison gas attack on the city of Khan Sheikhoun. This resulted in more than eighty deaths in April of this year.