Today, U.S. Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued the following statement in reaction to the announcement that the U.S. and Russia have reached an agreement to support a UN Security Council Resolution that would establish a panel to investigate the use of chlorine against civilians in Syria:

“After months of unrelenting chlorine attacks, Russia finally agreed to a Security Council Resolution to help identify those responsible for this barbaric killing of Syrian civilians.  Hopefully, Russia’s days of covering for Assad in the face of overwhelming first-hand accounts of regime atrocities are over.  I don’t need a U.N. panel to know that Assad is using crude chlorine bombs to terrorize Syrians, but there was no international legal means to assign responsibility.  The Administration must now press to ensure that this panel is used to bring swift justice to Assad and his henchmen, not more delay.” 

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