WE WILL TAKE ON CHEMICAL KILLER ASSAD
Johnson vows to ‘act on evidence’
BRITAIN should take military action against Syria if the regime has used chemical weapons, said Boris Johnson yesterday.
The Foreign Secretary vowed action, responding to reports of a chlorine attack which killed a child.
He said the UK should consider strikes against President Bashar al-Assad if there was “incontrovertible” evidence he had targeted his own people with such weapons.
He added: “We in the West need to ask ourselves, can we allow the use of chemical weapons, the use of these illegal weapons to go un-reprieved, unchecked, unpunished? “I don’t think that we can. “If there is incontrovertible evidence of the use of chemical weapons, verified by the Office of the Prevention of Chemical Weapons, if we know that it’s happened and we can demonstrate it, and if there is a proposal for action where the UK could be useful, then I think that we should seriously consider it.”
Mr Johnson’s comments came as a five-hour pause in the regime’s assault on the rebel-held enclave of eastern Ghouta, close to the capital Damascus, got underway.
A UN security council resolution at the weekend demanded a 30-day ceasefire. But Russian President Vladimir Putin only ordered a daily pause of five hours in the bombardment by its allies in the Syrian capital.
The regime is bidding to crush one of the last pockets of resistance that remains around the capital.
Britain had the chance to back air strikes against Assad in August 2013. But PM David Cameron lost a vote.
Meanwhile, the BBC yesterday reported women in Syria have been sexually exploited by men delivering aid on behalf of the UN.
BORIS Johnson has threatened British military action against Syria before and was forced to back down, humiliated by the lack of international support.
Tory ministers alternatively demanding the head of Bashar al-Assad, then agreeing that the Damascus dictator needed to be part of any peace deal, raised doubts about our Government’s willingness to risk British lives.
The use by Assad’s regime of chemical weapons breaches international law and is abhorrent. So too is dropping barrel bombs to incinerate civilians.
Targeting the Islamic State jihadists was relatively simple when they had no missiles to shoot down aircraft. But Syria’s tyrant, backed by Russia, possesses the ability to fire back.
We need a negotiated solution to this terrible conflict, not more fighting.