Russia casts veto preventing UN probe into Syria chemical attacks

New York  : Russia on Tuesday cast a veto at the United Nations Security Council, preventing the renewal of the mandate for a mission that investigates the use of chemical weapons in the attack on Syria's rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun.

 The mandate of a joint UN organisation for the prohibition of chemical weapons is due to expire in mid-November.

The investigation by the United Nations and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) - known as the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) - was unanimously created by the 15-member UN Security Council in 2015, and renewed in 2016.

A JIM report on who is responsible



behind the April 4 attack on Khan Sheikhoun is due on October 26.

Russia wanted to discuss the JIM report before casting its vote on extension of the mandate.

"We are ready to return to extending the JIM after the publication of the report and after we discuss it after 26 October," Russian Ambassador to UN Vassily Nebenzia was quoted as saying by The Independent.

However, his request for postponing the vote did not yield the desired result.

Russia is one of the five countries that can exercise veto powers at the Security Council.

Its veto on the probe has invited condemnation from United States.