PARIS: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Tuesday Russia bore responsibility for recent chemical attacks by the Syrian government, which Moscow backs in the country’s civil war.

“Only yesterday more than 20 civilians, most of them children, were victims of an apparent chlorine gas attack,” Tillerson said of the reported attack in Eastern Ghouta that left its victims struggling to breathe.

“Whoever conducted the attacks, Russia ultimately bears responsibility for the victims in East Ghouta and countless other Syrians targeted with chemical weapons, since Russia became involved in Syria,” he told reporters in Paris.

“There is simply no denying that Russia, by shielding its Syrian ally, has breached its commitments to the US as a framework guarantor. At a bare minimum, Russia must stop vetoing, or at the very least abstain, from future Security Council votes on this issue,” he added.

His comments came as diplomats from 29 countries met in Paris to push for sanctions and criminal charges against the perpetrators of chemical attacks in Syria.

Russia and China have blocked Western-backed efforts at the UN to impose sanctions on Damascus over their use. Tuesday’s meeting was intended to encourage countries to share information in order to compile a list of individuals implicated in the use of chemical weapons in Syria and beyond.

These could then be hit with sanctions such as asset freezes and entry bans as well as criminal proceedings at the national level.

Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2018