Following reports of the successful elimination of 200 tonnes of Syrian chemical stockpiles, Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Minister Tobias Ellwood said that “we must not lose sight of the fact that industrial chemicals such as chlorine are still being used as weapons in Syria: in breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention and U.N. Security Council Resolutions. This needs to end now.”

“Those responsible for their use must be held accountable and brought to justice. The Syrian regime also has serious questions to answer in respect of its previous weapon programs and cannot be considered to be in full compliance with its Chemical Weapons Convention and U.N. Security Council obligations until it has done so satisfactorily,” he added.

Spokesman for the Syrian Coalition Salem al-Meslet calls for holding an urgent UN Security Council meeting to enforce the UN Resolution 2118 under Chapter VII and for the referral of war criminals to the International Criminal Court.

“The international community and members of the UN Security Council bear full responsibility of the catastrophic situation in Syria as they have so far failed to end the ongoing tragedy in Syria or to hold war criminals and perpetrators of genocidal crimes to account,” Meslet said.

“The UN Security Council has also failed to enforce the resolutions 2118 of 2013 concerning the use of chemical weapons, and paragraph 21 of the same resolution, which provides for the imposition of measures under Chapter VII of the UN Charter in the case of non-compliance with this resolution, including the unauthorized transfer of chemical weapons and the use of chemical weapons in Syria.” (Source: Syrian Coalition + Agencies)