USA: Russian veto shows indifference

washington - The Russian veto over the extension of an investigation into the use of chemical weapons in Syria has caused bad blood in the United States. 'The veto gives a clear message that Moscow attaches no value whatsoever to the lives of the victims', according to a statement by the US government Friday night (local time).

Russia vetoed Thursday in the UN Security Council. The mandate for international research ended Thursday at midnight. On Friday, the Russians also vetoed a Japanese resolution for a temporary research mandate of a month.

Russian vetoes on the question of debt to the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian war were the tenth and eleventh in a row since it began in 2011.

The US President Donald Trump had called on Moscow Thursday 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.