"We believe that today's decision is primarily preventive in nature and will hinder the further use of toxic chemicals as weapons in Syria," Vitaly Churkin said following the vote.
He added that Russia hoped that the new body would work "impartially, objectively and professionally."
The resolution requests the UN Secretary-General to submit within 20 days recommendations for the creation of a Joint Investigative Mechanism of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the United Nations to identify and bring to justice "those individuals, entities, groups, or governments responsible for any use of chemicals as weapons, including chlorine or any other toxic chemical."
After a sarin gas attack near Damascus killed hundreds of people in 2013, Syria joined the OPCW and agreed to destroy its chemical weapons arsenal. At the end of October 2014, the OPCW reported that nearly 98 percent of the chemical weapons in Syria had been removed and destroyed.
In December 2014, the Syrian government told the OPCW that armed groups had seized several industrial areas in Syria where chlorine-containing substances were being stored. However, Washington and its allies still suspect Damascus of using chemical weapons.
