UNITED NATIONS, September 12 (Itar-Tass) - Representatives of five permanent member-states of the UN Security Council on Wednesday held an informal meeting where they discussed a draft resolution on the Syrian chemical weapons. It had been filed by France.
The meeting was held on the premises of the Russian mission at the UN.
As the diplomats of Western countries including U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power and British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant were passing by reporters on the way to the meeting, they refrained from comments.
A source at the UN headquarters told Itar-Tass earlier the meeting would discuss a draft resolution that apportioned blame for the August 21 chemical attack near Damascus on the administration of President Bashar al-Assad and contained threats with “appropriate measures in line with Chapter 7 of the UN Charter” in case of new incidents, implying a possible use of force.
The Western trio of Security Council’s permanent members is pressing for the endorsement of the resolution although the UN inspectors have not confirmed the fact of chemical weapons combat utilization in Syria.
Sources told Itar-Tass Russia is putting forward a counter proposal to pass a statement that would not have biding force.
Unconfirmed reports say Russia hoped to coordinate the text of the document at an emergency meeting of the Security Council Tuesday but the French mission asked the Russian side to revoke it so that it could finalize its own draft resolution.