Britain rallies support for strengthening chemical watchdog

THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS — Britain’s national security adviser visited The Hague on Thursday to rally support for his country’s move to beef up the global chemical weapons watchdog.

Mark Sedwill met with several ambassadors from member states of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Britain needs 64 other state parties to back its call to convene a special conference of the organization, likely in late June.

“We recognized that the global norm against chemical weapons use is being threatened,” Sedwill said after meeting diplomats. “The United Kingdom is working alongside our partner states to strengthen the OPCW’s existing mechanisms.”

While Britain has not officially outlined how it wants to strengthen the organization, London and its allies are understood to want the OPCW to begin apportioning blame for chemical attacks, in a move toward ending impunity for the use of poison gas and nerve agents.

Russia vetoed a Westernbacked resolution in November that would have extended the mandate of a UN-OPCW team called the Joint Investigative Mechanism dooming its operation.

A diplomat from one of the Western nations supporting the British initiative said that part of the moves to strengthen the OPCW is to empower it to lay blame for chemical attacks.