France Wants U.N. Council to Back Syria Gas Attacks Probe
France still wants the U.N. Security Council to adopt a draft resolution demanding an investigation of the suspected chemical attack in Syria after it failed to agree on such a measure, the ambassador said Tuesday.
The council last week discussed three separate draft texts in response to the apparent attack in the rebel-held down of Khan Sheikhun, but there was no vote on any of the measures.
"We cannot give up and we must try, in good faith, the best we can, to have a text condemning the attack, asking for a thorough investigation," French Ambassador Francois Delattre told reporters.
France joined the United States and Britain to push for a tough investigation, but its proposed draft faced the likelihood of a veto from Russia.
Delattre said France was now looking for "a good text and a good vote."
France, Britain and the United States have accused President Bashar al-Assad's forces of carrying out the attack that killed at least 87 civilians, including 31 children.
As the council debated its response on Thursday, the United States fired air strikes on a Syrian air base from where the US administration says the chemical attacks were launched.
"It's very important that there is a full investigation so that everybody knows, everybody knows, so that the entire world knows how these horrible chemical attacks occurred and where they come from," said Delattre.
France hopes that the US military action and Washington's demand that Assad be barred from power as part of a peace deal will open up a new opportunity for a solution.
Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier called for a thorough investigation by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and suggested that Assad was the target of false accusations.
Turkey's health minister confirmed that post-mortem tests on the victims showed that the deadly nerve agent sarin had been used in the April 4 attack.
Source: Agence France Presse
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