Tirumurti warns against terrorists getting chem arms in heated UNSC debate

UNITED NATIONS: Presiding over an acrimonious UN Security Council (UNSC) session on Syria that pitted the US and its allies against Russia and China, India's Permanent Representative T.S. Tirumurti warned against terrorists getting hold of chemical weapons. "India has been repeatedly cautioning against the possibility of terrorist entities and individuals gaining access to chemical weapons," he said on Wednesday during the session that was briefed on chemical weapons and Syria.

"We are concerned at the frequent reports of resurgence of terrorist groups in the region. As we have learnt from the consequences of complacency against terrorism in the past, the international community cannot afford to ignore terrorist activities in Syria and the region."

The first open session showed the challenges Tirumurti faces in leading a Council driven by the interests of veto-wielding permanent members and guiding them out of its paralysis to minimal consensus on the most polarising issues.

As the Western countries and Russia and China continued their long-standing feud over the issue of the use of chemical weapons in Syria, Tirumurti pleaded for cooperation and understanding in dealing with it. Tirumurti recalled that the Council voted unanimously last month on a resolution to extend the use of a border crossing to allow humanitarian aid to Syrian people.

Another area of confrontation, the Russia-Georgia conflict, that had come up in closed consultations spilled outside the Council in clashing briefings by the US and its European allies and Russia. The US and its allies are opposed to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and accused him of using chemical weapons besides other grievious human rights abuses on a massive scale. But China and Russia back al-Assad and defend him against the chemical weapons charges.

Since both sides have veto powers, the Council has been at an impasse over Syria, a nation in the throes of a decade-long civil war. Wednesday's was the first session of the Council with an open debate after India assumed the Council's presidency and all the other 14 members, including China's delegate Sun Zhiqiang, greeted Tirumurti wishing him success.

The session started off with a briefing by Thomas Markram, the deputy to the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, on the report of the director-general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

He said that the Assad government's claims that it had no chemical weapons programme cannot be accepted because of inconsistencies and discrepancies in its assertions.

Syria must fully cooperate with the OPCW's Technical Secretariat to resolve all outstanding issues before the international community can be assured that its chemical weapons programme has been eliminated, Markram said. US Permanent Representative Linda Thomas-Greenfield said: "The Assad regime, supported by Russia, continues to ignore calls from the international community to fully disclose and verifiably destroy its chemical weapons programmes. Instead, the Assad regime continues to deliberately delay and obstruct the work of the OPCW.

"It is disappointing that the use of a weapon of mass destruction by a government against its own people could possibly be a source of political conflict in this Council."

Russia countered by saying that the politicisation of the OPCW to further "the geopolitical ambitions of some states" threatened its credibility. (IANS)

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