Johnson urges Putin to stop supporting ‘tyrant’
LUCCA, Italy: Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G-7) major industrialized nations met in Italy on Monday, looking to put pressure on Russia to break its ties with Syrian President Bashar Assad.
US missile strikes on a Syrian air base last week in retaliation for an alleged chemical weapons attack on civilians in a rebel-held region by Assad’s forces has raised expectations that President Donald Trump is ready to adopt a tougher-thanexpected stance with Russia.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told reporters that Russia’s reputation was being tarnished by its continued support of Assad and suggested, along with Canada, that sanctions could be tightened on Moscow if it continued to back Assad.
It was unclear how far US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was prepared to push the Russian leadership when he travels to Moscow on Tuesday at the end of the twoday G-7 gathering in the Tuscan city of Lucca.
“What we are trying to do is to give Rex Tillerson the clearest possible mandate from us as the West, the UK, all our allies here, to say to the Russians ‘this is your choice: Stick with that guy, stick with that tyrant, or work with us to find a better solution’,” Johnson said after meeting Tillerson.
Russia has rejected accusations that Assad used chemical arms against his own people and has said it will not cut its ties with the Syrian president, who has been locked in a six-year-old civil war that has devastated his country.
“Returning to pseudo-attempts to resolve the crisis by repeating mantras that Assad must step down cannot help sort things out,” Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on Monday.
Tillerson himself said at the weekend that the main priority for the US was the defeat of one of Assad’s main foes, Daesh.
Those comments left US allies wonder- ing whether the April 7 missile attack was a one-off event.
On Monday, the former oilmanturned-diplomat visited the site of a World War II Nazi massacre in Italy and said the US would never let such abuses go unchallenged.
“We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world,” he told reporters in Sant’Anna di Stazzema.
Looking to build their case against Assad, Italy has invited the foreign ministers from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Jordan and Qatar to sit down with the G-7 group on Tuesday morning to discuss Syria. All oppose Assad’s rule.
The foreign ministers’ discussions were expected to prepare the way for a G- 7 leaders’ summit in Sicily at the end of May, which looks set to be Trump’s first overseas trip since becoming president.
Besides Syria, the ministers planned to talk about growing tensions with North Korea, as the US moves a navy strike group near the Korean peninsula amid concerns over Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.
They were also focusing on Libya. Italy is hoping for vocal support for a UN-backed government in Tripoli which has struggled to establish its authority even in the city, let alone in the rest of the north African country.
The Trump administration has not yet defined a clear policy and Rome fears Washington may fall into step with Egypt and Russia, which both support general Khalifa Haftar, a powerful figure in eastern Libya.
The struggle against terrorism, relations with Iran and instability in Ukraine is also on the agenda, with the meeting expected to finish by midday on Tuesday.
German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel earlier said: “Now is the right moment to talk about how we can push for a peace process in Syria within the international community.”
In Washington, a military spokesman said that the military was still able to deconflict operations with Russia over Syria, but it was unclear how that was happening.
On Friday, Interfax news agency, citing a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, said Russia had notified the Pentagon it would close down a communication line used to avoid accidental clashes in Syria.
“We have continued to deconflict as necessary with the Russians because whenever we are flying we have to use all the available means to make sure that we don’t have any mid-air incidents. That particular line and how it is used, we are not talking about it,” said Col. John ThomasUS Central Command spokesman.
Also Monday, the leaders of southern EU nations said that a US missile strike on a Syrian air base in retaliation for a suspected chemical attack was “understandable.”
“The strike launched by the United States on Shayrat Airfield in Syria had the understandable intention to prevent and deter the spread and use of chemical weapons and was limited and focused on this objective,” they said in a joint statement after a summit in Madrid.
In their statement, the southern EU leaders — including Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and French President Francois Hollande — condemned “in the strongest terms the airstrike with chemical weapons.”
They added: “The repeated use of chemical weapons in Syria, both by the (Bashar) Assad regime since 2013 and by Daesh constitute war crimes.”
Speaking after the Madrid meeting, Hollande said the alleged attack had demanded a response, which he said Washington had provided. “The Russians cannot decide alone the future of this country along with Iran,” he said.
The US has also taken a hard line with Russia, which supports the Assad regime.
While stopping short of accusing the Russians of complicity, Tillerson has accused Moscow of being “incompetent” in failing to prevent it.