{"id":24918,"date":"2017-07-25T14:20:27","date_gmt":"2017-07-25T18:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/?p=24918"},"modified":"2017-07-25T18:26:01","modified_gmt":"2017-07-25T22:26:01","slug":"gassed-khan-sheikhoun-investigation-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/gassed-khan-sheikhoun-investigation-begins\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Gassed Khan Sheikhoun? The Investigation Begins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"by Aron Lund<\/strong><\/p>\n

On June 29, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, OPCW, published its final report<\/a> on events in the Syrian city of Khan Sheikhoun on April 4, 2017.<\/p>\n

As you’ll recall, President Donald Trump struck a Syrian air base<\/a> a few days later in retaliation for what the United States and allied nations, as well as the Syrian opposition, say was an attack by President Bashar al-Assad’s air force. The Syrian government denies involvement and has variously said its jets accidentally bombed a rebel chemical storage or blamed a rebel false flag operation backed by Western intelligence services. Russian diplomats have backed up Damascus and lobbied hard to discredit the OPCW investigators in international fora and in the media. Western nations, too, have played some rough politics on this issue, and the whole debate has turned incredibly toxic and divisive<\/a>\u2014which is ironic, since all involved claim to want to uphold the international ban on chemical weapons.<\/p>\n

The OPCW Fact Finding Mission has confirmed the use of sarin, a banned nerve agent, in the Khan Sheikhoun incident, but it did not assign responsibility to either side. Why? Because that wasn’t its mission<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Instead, another team of investigators known as the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism, or JIM, are now taking over to try and name the perpetrator. It won’t be an easy job, at least not if they are to produce evidence that would hold up in court. It might also be a very dangerous mission, especially if they try to get to Khan Sheikhoun itself. The city is run by hardline jihadis and it is close to one of Syria’s most anarchic and violent frontlines<\/a>\u2014and for all the lingering question marks, we know one thing for sure: whoever was behind the April 4 killings has a very strong interest in preventing the investigators from getting safely in and out.<\/p>\n

In a new report<\/a> for The Century Foundation, I try to walk readers through some of the obstacles, problems, and possible surprises that the JIM investigators face. They’ll be working under tight time constraints and are up against what could very well turn out to be impossible odds, but their work is of the greatest importance not just for Syria, but for the global ban on chemical weapons and for international law.<\/p>\n

An interim report may arrive in September or even as early as August, but the JIM’s final report, which may or may not name a perpetrator, is scheduled for release in October. That’s just weeks before the JIM mandate runs out. The investigation will be forced to swim the veto-infested waters of the the UN Security Council to win an extension in November.<\/p>\n

It is not a lot of time, and the JIM leaders are already complaining about obstructions and pressure, including foot-dragging by the Syrian government and constant interference from state actors telling them how to do their work. To be sure, the JIM has hired a highly competent bunch of experts and investigators, but in this environment and on that time frame, it’s anyone’s guess if they’ll be able to put all pieces of the puzzle together before the clock runs out.<\/p>\n

Read the report here<\/strong><\/a>. Much more will certainly be written in the coming months.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Aron Lund<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"

Topography of Khan Sheikhoun. Source: OPCW.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Aron Lund On June 29, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, OPCW, published its final report on events in the Syrian city of Khan Sheikhoun on April 4, 2017. As you’ll recall, President Donald Trump struck a Syrian air base a few days later in retaliation for what the United States and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[103,559,38,43,45,19],"tags":[117,94,229,562,561,560,158,113,565,564,563],"class_list":["post-24918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aron-lund","category-chemical-weapons","category-russia","category-sanctions","category-un","category-us","tag-aron-lund-2","tag-assad","tag-chemical-weapons","tag-khan-shaykhun","tag-khan-sheikhoun","tag-opcw","tag-russia-2","tag-syria","tag-tcf","tag-the-century-foundation","tag-united-states"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nWho Gassed Khan Sheikhoun? 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