France’s far-right presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen said Thursday that any party should not blame for the alleged chemical attack in Syria’s Idlib province without first allowing an official investigation into the incident to be completed.
“The resolution has been prepared in such a way that the responsibility was put on [Syrian President] Bashar Assad even before an investigation,” Le Pen told the Europe 1 broadcaster.
It is necessary to hold an international inquiry [into the Idlib incident], and if I were in the UNSC, I would vote for such an investigation, but not for apportioning the blame even before the beginning of the inquiry, because it is the best way to blow the chances to know the truth,” the French presidential hopeful said.
On April 4, dozens of people were reportedly killed in the chemical incident in Idlib. Paris, Washington and London submitted a UNSC draft resolution condemning the alleged attack. Russia vetoed the document on April 12, pointing out that the draft implicated the Syrian authorities as the party to blame for the incident, despite no proper investigation was conducted.
After vetoing the resolution, Russia’s Deputy UN Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov said that Russia’s own draft resolution on the alleged attack would request on-site investigations from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to ensure that “all possible sources and means have been exhausted” before making final conclusions.
Source: Sputnik
