By AFPMore by this AuthorRussia and China on Tuesday boycotted what Moscow called an "unacceptable" closed-door videoconference with the UN Security Council on chemical weapons in Syria. "Russia and China have empty tiles" on the screen, a Security Council member told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Regrettably, our Western partners, and their allies, insisted on holding this meeting behind closed doors in an informal setting despite the slogans of openness and transparency of the Security Council. The IIT published in early April a report for the first time explicitly blaming Damascus for three chemical weapons attacks in 2017. According to Moscow, a Damascus ally, Syria had halted its chemical weapons program, destroyed its stockpile of chemical weapons and its production capacity.

Source: Daily Nation May 12, 2020 22:41 UTC