The United States and 28 other countries are launching a new plan to better identify and punish anyone who uses chemical weapons, amid new reports of a suspected chemical attack in Syria.
The plan was announced Tuesday in Paris, where U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and diplomats from the other signatory countries.
The group says it expects to publish information about chemical attacks to name and shame perpetrators and eventually sanction them. UN efforts to punish perpetrators in Syria have failed, repeatedly blocked by Syrian ally Russia.
Syria denies having or using chemical weapons.
Activists and rescue teams said the Syrian government launched an attack Monday with suspected poisonous gas that affected nearly 20 civilians in a rebel-held suburb near Damascus. This was also denied by Syria.
Syrian lab sanctioned
In other news, the French government said it is freezing assets of companies that help furnish material to a Syrian lab accused of producing chemical weapons.
The measures target procurement networks for the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center, according to a statement Tuesday from the French foreign and finance ministers. It calls the lab “the principal Syrian laboratory in charge of chemical and toxic war programs.”
The statement said that through a series of affiliated companies based in multiple countries, the purchasing networks have been furnishing materials for the manufacture of chemical weapons including sarin gas.
The U.S. and EU imposed sanctions on employees from the lab last year, though Russia and China vetoed proposed UN sanctions against the lab.
From Oct. 2017:
