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UN Approves Panel To Assign Blame For Syria's Chemical Attacks

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The United Nations Security Council has unanimously approved a resolution aimed at identifying those responsible for using chemical weapons in attacks in Syria.

The vote on August 7 came two days after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reached agreement on the text.

The resolution calls for the creation of a UN panel that will be tasked with identifying who is behind deadly chlorine gas attacks in Syria, which the West has blamed on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the global chemical weapons watchdog, has a mandate to carry out fact-finding missions to determine whether chemical attacks occurred in Syria. But neither the organization nor the United Nations has a mandate to determine responsibility.

The resolution would set up a new UN investigative body to identify those responsible.

Based on reporting by AP, Reuters, and dpa

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