US vows to keep Syria’s chemical weapons program in UN spotlight over Russian and Chinese opposition

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States and its allies are vowing to keep Syria’s failure to account for its chemical weapons program in the spotlight at the U.N. Security Council every month despite opposition from Russia and China. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council Tuesday that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government “has repeatedly lied to the international community” and to investigators from the international chemical weapons watchdog, which has confirmed that it used these banned weapons on at least nine occasions. She said the Biden administration will continue to demand a full accounting from Syria. For the first time, Russia and China refused to speak at the monthly meeting on the Syria chemical weapons issue, saying they are repetitive.