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Explanation of Vote at the Adoption of Resolution 2209 on Syria

U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations

Samantha Power
U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
New York, NY
March 6, 2015

 

AS DELIVERED

Thank you, Mr. President. We adopt this resolution today a year and a half after this Council adopted a binding resolution in the wake of a horrific, gruesome chemical weapons attack that left more than a thousand civilians and hundreds of children killed. Resolution 2118 required the Syrian regime to dismantle and destroy its chemical weapons program under international supervision. The UN-OPCW Joint Mission, with the assistance of numerous Member States, largely succeeded in this task. Yet significant discrepancies remain with Syria's declaration to the OPCW, and the Assad regime must cooperate, as per its obligations in resolution 2118, to resolve these.

Despite having acceded to the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Assad regime has again demonstrated its brutality by turning to chlorine as another barbaric weapon in its arsenal against the Syrian people. Today, this Council makes crystal clear that the use of chlorine as a chemical weapon is no less an evil than the use of any other chemical as a weapon. The Syrian regime's use of any toxic chemical as a weapon is prohibited by the Chemical Weapons Convention and constitutes a violation of resolution 2118.

The OPCW's Fact Finding Mission was not mandated to assign culpability for these chlorine attacks. It was not mandated to do so. Yet a couple of Council members are suggesting that the absence of finger-pointing, explicitly, is a form of absolution. Let's look instead at what the report actually said. The Fact Finding Mission concluded with high confidence that there is, "compelling confirmation that a toxic chemical was used as a weapon, systematically and repeatedly," in Syria between April and August of 2014.

Further, the third Fact Finding Mission report lists thirty-two witnesses who saw or heard the sound of helicopters over three opposition held villages–Talmenes, Al Tamanah, and Kafr Zita in northwest Syria–at the time of the attacks; the vast majority of interviewees either heard or saw barrel bombs falling. Twenty-six witnesses saw a yellow cloud or dust released from those barrel bombs upon impact, and twenty-nine smelled a chlorine odor. All of us, of course, know the smell of chlorine.

So, let's ask ourselves who has helicopters in Syria? Certainly not the opposition. Only the regime does and we have seen them use their helicopters in countless other attacks on innocent Syrians using barrel bombs.

In resolution 2118, this Council determined that, "the use of chemical weapons anywhere constitutes a threat to international peace and security." And today we have reaffirmed that any use of a chemical as a weapon–be it sarin or chlorine–is prohibited by this Security Council.

As we approach the centenary of the first use of chemical weapons on a large scale at the Battle of Ypres, this Council must continue to uphold the standards and norms against chemical weapons use, and we must work individually and collectively to hold those responsible for such use accountable.

Thank you.

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