UNSC meets to discuss threats to security in wake of Syria ‘chem attack’ reports (WATCH LIVE)

Published time: 9 Apr, 2018 19:06Edited time: 9 Apr, 2018 19:59

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The UN Security Council is holding an emergency meeting on security in the Middle East, in the wake of reports of an alleged chemical attack in the Syrian city of Douma.

The UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, opened the meeting by describing the reports about the alleged chemical attack in Douma and the subsequent airstrike against the Syrian T-4 air base. He called for an “independent investigation” of the alleged chemical incident and urged restraint for all sides, in view of the airbase attack.

Russia is deeply concerned by the fact that some capitals, Washington as well as London and Paris, which are “blindly following” their US allies, have engaged “in a confrontational policy against Russia and Syria without any justification,” The Russian Ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, said during the meeting. He went on to say that Moscow recently faced “slander, hawkish rhetoric, sanctions, blackmail” and even “threats of force.”

Western states are now threatening and slandering Russia with a ferocity that their governments “did not take the liberty”to unleash during the Cold War, Nebenzia added. “Russia has been inexcusably threatened,” he said.

Nebenzia stressed that every time the Western powers interfere into other states’ affairs, they “leave only chaos behind.” “Do you understand the dangerous threshold to which you are bringing the world?” the Russian envoy asked.