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UN SC fails to agree on draft resolution on Idlib incident — source

The Western countries plan to put their draft resolution to the vote in the coming hours, the source said

UNITED NATIONS, April 6. /TASS/. Members of the United Nations Security Council have failed to draw up a compromise draft resolution on investigating into the alleged chemical attack in the Syrian town of Khan Shaykhun that took place on April 4. The Western countries plan to put their draft resolution to the vote in the coming hours, a diplomatic source told TASS.

"We hope to have a vote today," the source said. According to another source, the session may begin at 19:00 local time (23:00 GMT).

Talks on a draft resolution have been going on for about 24 hours. Russia insists that the provision demanding Damascus to provide the international commission with complete information on the Syrian air forces’ combat flights on the day of the incident should be excluded from the document drawn up by the United Kingdom, the United States and France, as well as demands to grant the commission access to the air bases where warplanes could have taken off from to attack Khan Shaykhun. The Western countries do not agree, besides, they have rejected a Russian-drafted document.

The Russian-drafted document stipulates that the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will send their experts to the site in order to conduct a full-scale investigation. The draft resolution also demands that all parties to the Syrian conflict grant the experts free and secure access to the site.

The document which is planned to be put to the vote by the Western countries, has been slightly changed but the provision remains which says that in case of using chemical weapons, actions may be taken against Syria (including sanctions and the use of force). However, the provision demanding to provide investigators access to the site has been included at Russia’s insistence.