Give chemical teams power to blame, says UK

CHEMICAL weapons inspectors will lack “credibility” if they cannot assign blame, Britain will argue ahead of vote on powers of attribution.

A UK initiative to give the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) responsibility for attributing blame for chemical attacks will be voted on in The Hague today.

It comes after the watchdog confirmed the substance used to attack Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury earlier this year, but stopped short of blaming Russia. Currently, only the UN Security Council can apportion blame, but Russia has used its veto to block such moves.

John Walker, the head of the Arms Control and Disarmament Research Unit at the Foreign Office, said: “The CWC (Chem Weapons Convention) and the OPCW itself face a real risk to their current and long-term credibility and integrity if they fail to respond effectively and expeditiously to the persistent use of chemical weapons.”