France: Syria and Islamic State blamed for chemical attacks

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — An international team has blamed the Syrian government and Islamic State militants for chemical attacks in the conflict-wracked nation during 2014 and 2015, a French diplomat said Wednesday.

France’s U.N. Ambassador Alexis Lamek said the U.N. Security Council must take action against the perpetrators based on the final report by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons-United Nations Joint Investigative Mechanism.

“It states clearly that the Syrian regime and Daesh have perpetrated chemical attacks in Syria, and in the case of the regime several cases are identified,” Lamek said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

“When it comes to proliferation, use of chemical weapons, such weapons of mass destruction, we cannot afford being weak and the council will have to act,” he told reporters.

The joint body, known as the JIM, was set up by the Security Council last year and was investigating nine cases of alleged chemical use.

According to excerpts from the report obtained by The Associated Press, the JIM found conclusive evidence in three cases.

It said the Syrian government was responsible for two chlorine attacks in Idlib governorate, one in Talmenes on April 21, 2014 and one in Sarmin on March 16, 2015. And it said the Islamic State group was “the only entity with the ability, capability, motive and the means to use sulfur mustard” gas in Marea in Aleppo governorate on Aug. 21, 2015.

The JIM said three other cases it investigated pointed toward government responsibility but weren’t conclusive and three more cases were inconclusive. It called for further investigations in several instances.