Russia and US headed for collision in UN over probe of Syria toxic gas attacks

Russia and the United States are on a collision course ahead of a UN Security Council vote on the fate of a UN-led investigation to determine who is behind chemical attacks in Syria's six-year war.

The United States and Russia, Syria's ally, have put forward rival draft resolutions on renewing for a year the mandate of the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), tasked with investigating Syria's toxic gas attacks.

After negotiations failed to bridge differences, the rivals each called for a council vote on their draft resolutions on Thursday, hours before the JIM's mandate expires at midnight.

Russia has vetoed nine resolutions on Syria since the conflict started in 2011, including blocking an initial US bid on 24 October to renew the JIM, saying it wanted to wait for the release two days later of the inquiry's report, which subsequently blamed a sarin gas attack on the Syrian government.

The Russian text is unlikely to garner the nine votes required for adoption, diplomats said.

"The United States hopes the Security Council will stand united in the face of chemical weapons use against civilians and extend the work of this critical group," the US mission to the United Nations said in a statement on Wednesday.

"Not doing so would only give consent to such atrocities while tragically failing the Syrian people who have suffered from these despicable acts," the statement added.

Russia sharply criticised the JIM after its report blamed the Syrian air force for the 4 April sarin gas attack on the opposition-held village of Khan Sheikhun that left scores dead.

That attack triggered global outrage as images of dying children were shown worldwide, prompting the US to launch a multiple missile strike on a Syrian air base a few days later.

Washington and its allies have also blamed President Bashar al-Assad's government for the Khan Sheikhun attack, but Syria has denied using chemical weapons, with strong backing from Russia.

Victory for those who use chemical weapons

In its draft, Russia insisted that the panel's findings on Khan Sheikhun be put aside to allow for another "full-scale and high-quality investigation" by the JIM, which would be extended for a year.

The United States, Britain and France have insisted that the JIM should be allowed to continue its work and that dozens of other cases of chemical weapons use in Syria be investigated.

British UN Ambassador Matthew Rycroft warned on Wednesday that if the inquiry ended, "the only victors would be people who want to use chemical weapons in Syria, which is the (Syrian President Bashar) al-Assad regime plus Daesh," using a different acronym for the Islamic State (IS) group.

"Everyone in the Security Council would be shooting ourselves in the foot if we allowed that to happen," he said.

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said this week that scrapping the chemical weapons probe in Syria "may send a bad signal, but the way the investigation has been conducted sends an even worse signal."

The joint UN-Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) panel was set up by Russia and the United States in 2015 and unanimously endorsed by the council, which renewed its mandate last year. 

The resolution requires nine votes to be adopted at the council, but the five permanent members - Russia, Britain, China, France and the United States - can individually block its adoption with their veto power.