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THE UN security council voted unanimously yesterday to set up a panel to investigate chlorine gas attacks in Syria.
The resolution came in response to recent allegations of attacks using the toxic gas, which is not classed as a chemical weapon but which is nevertheless illegal for use in war.
It calls on UN secretary-general Ban Ki Moon, in co-ordination with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), to submit recommendations to set up a joint investigative body.
The panel would identify those who are “perpetrators, organisers, sponsors or otherwise involved in the use of chemicals as weapons, including chlorine or any other toxic chemical” in Syria, in instances where an OPCW fact-finding mission determines that an incident involved, or likely involved, their use.
The vote came just two days after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry reached agreement on the final text of the resolution. None of the 13 other council members raised objections.
Reports emerged in July that Islamic State (Isis), which controls about a third of Syria and Iraq, used projectile-delivered poison gas against Kurdish forces in both countries on several occasions in June.
Syria destroyed its stockpile of chemical weapons and possible precursors last year.
The US State Department claimed that the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad, which is fighting a myriad of rebel and Islamist groups including Isis, was “the root of all evil.”
Mr Kerry’s ministry said: “The Assad regime frankly is the root of all evil here … and has been instrumental in creating the kind of lawless area to the north where Isis has been able to get purchase and extend its roots.”
The comments came as the US launched its first drone air strikes aimed at creating a safe haven for “moderate” Syrian rebels from the Incerlik airbase in neighbouring Turkey.
Meanwhile, the Coventry-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed that Isis had abducted 230 people, including 60 Syrian Christians, after capturing the town of Quaryatain in Homs province.
