Russia says there is not enough proof Syrian government forces dropped banned chlorine gas on its enemies. It is the seventh vote on Syrian sanctions that Russia has vetoed.
Image: Reuters/M. Segar
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Russia and China vetoed on Tuesday a United Nations resolution that sought to impose sanctions on Syria over chemical weapons use.
The draft resolution would have banned the sale or supply of helicopters to the Syrian government, and would have placed targeted travel bans and asset freezes on Syrian military and government officers. It came after an investigation by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The UN found Syrian government forces had used helicopters to drop barrel bombs containing chlorine gas.
Syria sanctions hit child cancer treatment
In the cancer ward at Damascus Children's Hospital, doctors are struggling with a critical shortage of specialist drugs to treat their young patients - and it's not just due to the general chaos of the Syrian civil war.
Image: Reuters/O.Sanadiki
Sanctions hinder imports
Six years of conflict have brought the Syrian health service, once one of the best in the Middle East, close to collapse. Fewer than half of the country's hospitals are fully
functioning. Around 200 children visit the Children's Hospital in Damascus every week, with more than 70 percent from outside the capital.
Image: Reuters/O.Sanadiki
Foreign firms remain wary
Young cancer patients wait for treatment at Damascus Children's Hospital. Local and World Health Organization officials blame Western sanctions for severely restricting pharmaceutical imports, even though medical supplies are largely exempt from measures imposed by the United States and European Union.
Image: Reuters/O.Sanadiki
State spending cuts
Cuts in health expenditure by the Syrian government fighting a hugely expensive war, a drastic fall in the value of the currency and indirect effects of the sanctions are all deepening the misery of patients who need foreign-made drugs. Before the conflict, Syria produced 90 percent of the medicines it needed but anti-cancer drugs were among those where it traditionally relied on imports.
Image: Reuters/O.Sanadiki
Cuts in Syria's health budget
Nurses taking care of a sick child. The World Health Organization in Syria, says medicine imports have been hit by significant cuts in the government's health budget since the war began in 2011. Adding up tot hat is a 90 percent drop in the value of the Syrian pound, which has made some pharmaceuticals prohibitively expensive.
Image: Reuters/O.Sanadiki
More than a lack of cash
"The impact of economic sanctions imposed on Syria heavily affected the procurement of some specific medicine including anti-cancer medicines," says Elizabeth Hoff, the WHO representative in Syria. "The sanctions were preventing many international pharmaceutical companies from dealing with the Syrian authorities as well as hindering foreign banks in handling payments for imported drugs."
Image: Reuters/O.Sanadiki
Patients waiting for treatment
Cancer patient Fahd plays with his mobile phone while his mother sits by his bed. Both the U.S. and EU sanctions include exemptions for medicines and other humanitarian supplies. However, by clamping down on financial transactions and barring much business with the Syrian government, the sanctions are indirectly affecting trade in pharmaceuticals.
Image: Reuters/O.Sanadiki
Delays in treatment
One private charity, Basma, is trying to help out by funding cancer drugs for poor families. The proportion of patients who need assistance has risen from about 30 percent to nearly 80 percent since the war began, according to executive manager Rima Salem. Salem finds the delays in treatment worrying. "A child with cancer might die waiting for his turn to get treatment," she said.
Image: Reuters/O.Sanadiki
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Nine countries voted in favor of the Security Council resolution drafted by Britain, France and the United States, while three countries opposed it - China, Russia and Bolivia. Kazakhstan, Ethiopia and Egypt abstained. A UN resolution requires nine positive votes and no vetoes by the United States, France, Russia, Britain or China in order for it to be adopted.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Russia bore a "heavy responsibility towards the Syrian people and humanity as a whole" for vetoing the vote.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had warned earlier that imposing sanctions on Syria was "completely inappropriate" with ongoing peace talks in Geneva.
It was one of the first clashes between the UN and Russia since US President Donald Trump took power, vowing closer relations with MowscowImage: Reuters/M. Segar
US Ambassador Nikki Haley countered after the failed the vote that "this resolution is very appropriate."
"It is a sad day on the Security Council when members start making excuses for other member states killing their own people," she said. "The world is definitely a more dangerous place," she told the council after the measure was rejected.
The vote was one of the first confrontations at the UN between Russia and the US since President Donald Trump took office in January.
'God will judge you'
Russia's Deputy UN Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov described the statements made against Moscow in the Security Council as "outrageous" and declared that "God will judge you."
"Today's clash or confrontation is not a result of our negative vote. It is a result of the fact that you decided on provocation while you knew well ahead of time our position," said Safronkov.
British UN Ambassador Matthew Rycroft told the council before the vote: "This is about taking a stand when children are poisoned. It's that simple. It's about taking a stand when civilians are maimed and murdered with toxic weapons."
The weaponized use of chlorine, which turns into hydrochloric acid when inhaled, is banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Syria joined in 2013.
