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Russia raps General Assembly resolution on Syria investigation

Monday, 26 December 2016 11:16 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 26 December 2016 11:35 AM ]

Russian UN envoy Vitaly Churkin

Russia has blasted a recent UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution mandating an “independent” institution funded by “voluntary donation” to assist investigation into alleged war crimes in Syria.

Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Monday that such a body would not be able to carry out an impartial investigation under the UNGA resolution, which was passed by the assembly last week, RT reported.

He said the interests of the parties channeling funding to such team would interfere with an unbiased research, the envoy said. The body would, instead, be “delivering the results desired by its sponsors,” he asserted.

He, meanwhile, warned that it is becoming a common trend to send a flawed resolution to the General Assembly when the draft fails to get a consensus at the UN Security Council.

“This decision of the General Assembly was not right ... we honestly believe that the General Assembly does not have the authority to establish such institutions,” said Churkin.

On Wednesday, a day before the non-binding resolution was put to vote, Iran’s Deputy Ambassador to the UN Gholam-Hossein Dehqani said, “We find the draft resolution to be an unconstructive move, on both legal and political grounds,”

Since 2011, Syria has been grappling with militancy fueled by the regional and extra-regional countries seeking the ouster of the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

Those states, which most notably include the United States, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, have been unstintingly funneling financial assistance to Takfiri groups, while supporting anti-Damascus actions at the United Nations at the same time.

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