THE HAGUE: A push led by Russia to undercut new powers by the global chemical weapons agency to assign blame for attacks with banned poisons in Syria failed to win enough votes on Tuesday.

Western countries opposed the measure at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which came at a time of heightened tension between Russia and the West over the systematic use of chemical weapons in the Syrian war.

Last month, Dutch authorities said they disrupted an attempted hack into the Hague-based OPCW in April, when the watchdog was looking into both the attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal in Britain and chemical strikes in Syria that the West has blamed on Russias ally President Bashar al-Assad.

The draft decision put to a vote by the OPCW’s members was blocked with 82 against and 30 in favour. The other countries were either absent or abstained from voting.

Later on Tuesday, OPCW members will be asked for the first time to vote on the organisation’s budget, which usually passes by consensus, but is being challenged by Russia and its allies.

Russia is leading a political push to reverse a decision at a special session of the agency’s 193 members on June 27, when a British-led proposal to create a team to identify organisations or individuals responsible for chemical weapons attacks in Syria easily won a two-thirds majority of votes.

Opponents said allocating new powers to identify perpetrators will create more division at the OPCW, where Russia, much like at the United Nations, has blocked efforts to take action against its close ally Syria.

Moscow has lobbied countries to vote against providing funds needed to back up the June decision at the OPCW and is seeking to block the entire 2019 budget.

“This organisation will be left in shambles,” said Magzhan Ilyassov, Kazakhstan’s ambassador to the OPCW, who supports Russia’s position. He said the new team should not be funded and that the OPCW “will continue to disintegrate and fall apart.” A new team of 10 specialists is due to start work on Syria early next year. The team’s powers will later be widened to identify those responsible for attacks worldwide.

The OPCW’s new chief, Fernando Arias, has proposed a budget increase of 3.6 percent to just below 70 million euros ($80 million), including 2-2.5 million euros for the new team, which will be partly financed through the regular budget and partly through cash surplus.

It was created in response to an upsurge in the use of chemical weapons in recent years, notably in the Syrian conflict, where scores of attacks with sarin and chlorine have been carried out by Syrian forces and rebel groups, according to a joint United Nations-OPCW investigation.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement that “governments supporting an effort to identify those responsible for deadly chemical attacks in Syria need to back their commitment to justice with cash.”

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2018