Johnson calls for action over Syria sarin attack
Boris Johnson has made a fresh appeal for international action against Bashar al-Assad after a chemical weapons watchdog ruled that an attack in Syria in April which killed more than 74 people used sarin nerve gas.
The British Foreign Secretary said the Syrian President’s regime was behind the atrocity and that the inquiry’s findings “cannot be ignored”.
In the wake of the massacre, Russia blocked a British-backed bid at the United Nations Security Council to condemn the attack and Johnson failed to secure agreement on targeted sanctions at a meeting with G7 counterparts.
Johnson urged international leaders to “unite behind the need to hold those responsible for this atrocity to account”.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said the deadly attack on rebel-held Khan Sheikhoun “can only be determined as the use of sarin, as a chemical weapon” after it analysed samples from victims and survivors.
Its report did not conclude who was responsible for the atrocity but the UN will now use the findings in its own assessment.
Assad said the attack “fabrication” to justify US strikes.
Earlier this week, Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said the UK would support any fresh retaliation by the US for the use of chemical weapons by Syria, after the White House claimed it had intelligence the regime was planning another attack. was a missile
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