The international community has endowed the global chemical weapons watchdog with new powers to identify those behind toxic arms attacks in Syria, prompting an angry Russia to say it would not rule out leaving what it called a "sinking Titanic".
After two days of tense talks and in face of stiff opposition from Moscow and Damascus, a British-led proposal to strengthen the mandate of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) passed by 82 votes in favour with 24 against, here yesterday.
The OPCW now "has a crucial extra power, not just to identify the use of chemical weapons, but also to point the finger at the organisation, the state that they think is responsible," said British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
Other delegates said applause broke out after the vote at the rare special session of the OPCW's top policy-making body, called by London following recent repeated use of poison gases in Syria, Iraq as well as nerve agent attacks in Malaysia and Britain.
But Moscow, which along with Syria and Iran had vehemently opposed the move, shot back that the move was a sign the watchdog was on the brink of collapse.
"The OPCW is sinking like the Titanic," Russian ambassador to the Netherlands Alexander Shulgin told reporters. "It looks like the collapse of the organisation is currently in the making."
According to the text of the decision, seen by AFP, the OPCW's secretariat "shall put in place arrangements to identify the perpetrators of the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic." British ambassador to The Hague, Peter Wilson, hailed "an important day" saying the move was "a critical step forward in ensuring the chemical weapons abuse stops."
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