SYRIA - Saudi Arabia plays the card of chemical weapons

The kingdom will propose to the General Assembly of the UN resolution referring to the chemical threat brandished by Damascus.

Saudi Arabia will propose to the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on Syria, which will refer to the threat from Damascus to use its chemical weapons in case of foreign intervention, the ambassador said Wednesday Saudi at the UN. This draft resolution will be submitted in the coming days and could be voted "probably early next week," said Abdullah al-Mouallimi to a group of journalists. This initiative of Saudi Arabia - which supports the Syrian opposition as other Gulf countries - follows the failure last Thursday to the Security Council a resolution threatening Damascus Western sanctions and was blocked by a Russian-Chinese veto.

Asked if the text mentions the Saudi threat by the Syrian regime to use its chemical weapons, the ambassador replied that he "would refer to all significant issues in the Syrian situation." According to other diplomats at the UN, the resolution would ask the 193 member countries to apply economic sanctions the same as those decided against Syria by the Arab League. These same diplomats predict that this case Russia and China will vote against the text. The resolution would also require unhindered humanitarian access to areas of Syria where the fighting rages, they added.

The Assembly resolutions are not binding as those of the Council, but they are adopted by majority vote without the possibility of veto. "Arab countries are frustrated by the lack of international action on Syria, especially by the vetoes of Russia and China," said one diplomat.

Asian Defence News