UK moves to bolster powers of chemical weapons body

THE HAGUE: Britain moved to bolster the global chemical weapons organization on Tuesday, calling for its members to vote on a proposal to give it new powers to identify those responsible for attacks with banned poison munitions.
The call for a vote was made at a special session of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), where more than 140 countries have gathered to discuss the watchdog’s future. A vote will be held on Wednesday.
The British are seeking to fill a gap in implementing an international ban on chemical weapons, the use of which has become systematic in the Syrian civil war, but has also been seen in Iraq, Malaysia and Britain since 2012.
“For clarity, I am now requesting that the chair, immediately after my remarks, asks the meeting whether the United Kingdom’s text can be adopted by consensus,” said Frederick Curzon, Britain’s minister of state for defense.
“If a consensus is not possible I request that the chair schedule a vote of the conference of states parties in exactly 24 hours.”
Russia, Iran and Syria immediately objected to the move and accused the British of breaking OPCW rules. The conference chairman said the British call for a vote was in line with procedures.
The 20-year-old OPCW, which oversees a 1997 treaty banning the use of toxins as weapons, is a technical, scientific body which determines whether chemical weapons were used.
But it does not have the authority to identify perpetrators.
The British-led proposal, backed by France, Germany and the United States, was to be debated by roughly 140 countries at a special session of the OPCW that started Tuesday.
“Attribution goes beyond the mandate of the OPCW,” the Russian delegation said on Twitter. “The decision to create such a mechanism within the OPCW cannot be made at the special session” being held in The Hague.
The draft proposal, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, would thrust the OPCW to the forefront of the diplomatic confrontation between the West and Moscow which has seen relations deteriorate to their lowest point since the Cold War.
Russia and Indonesia submitted rival proposals, but Western diplomats said they were not believed to have strong political backing.