UNSC Permanent Members Meet on Syria Chemical Arms Draft

The five permanent UN Security Council members: US, Russia, Britain, France and China met on 17 September 2013 in New York to discuss a resolution on making safe Syria's chemical weapons.

A resolution is seen as a key step in a US-Russia brokered plan under which Syria will disclose its weapons within a week and eliminate it by mid-2014. France, the UK and US want a resolution carrying the threat of military action but Russia opposes the resolution.

In the current draft, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would be condemned for the use of chemical weapons in Syria. Also, the Syrian civil war would be referred to the International Criminal Court for possible war crimes indictments.

The draft is also written so that its provisions are under Chapter 7 of the U.N. charter, which covers the Security Council's authority to enforce its decisions with measures such as sanctions or the use of force.

The UNSC permanent members meeting came after U.N. investigators confirmed the use of sarin nerve agent in 21 August 2013 poison gas attack outside the Syrian capital. The United States, Britain and France stated the long-awaited U.N. report proved beyond any doubt that Syrian Government forces were responsible.

A UN report on the attack published on 16 September 2013 confirmed that the nerve agent Sarin had been used in a rocket attack there, although it did not apportion blame.