Current and former EU members of the UN Security Council - Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom - said, on Tuesday 12 May, that the international community should “duly consider” the report of 8 April by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian Air Force (see EUROPE 12465/20).
The international community should “take appropriate action” they explain in a joint statement. “We are determined to ensure that this clear violation of the core principles of the Convention receives the strongest possible response from the Chemical Weapons Convention’s States Parties”, they said, reaffirming their support for the OPCW to put in place arrangements to identify the perpetrators of the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
According to the Europeans, “those identified as responsible for the use of chemical weapons must be held accountable for these reprehensible acts”. “Impunity for these horrible acts will not be tolerated” they warn. Those countries recall that the use of chemical weapons is a violation of international law and can amount to the most serious of international crimes - war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The statement was issued on the margins of a behind closed-doors UN Security Council videoconference on Syria and chemical weapons, boycotted by Russia and China. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)