‘Act now to stop chemical warfare’

We must hold Assad to account with force to prevent future suffering, says Hague

CHEMICAL weapons will become “legitimised” and used in future wars if the West fails to take military action against the regime of Bashar al-assad, Lord Hague says today.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, the former foreign secretary says that he is in “little doubt” that if he were still in office today, he would recommend military intervention in Syria.

He adds: “The world has succeeded for nearly a century in preventing the use of chemical weapons on the battlefield. Once we accept that it is just another aspect of war, that is what it will become in the conflicts of coming decades, with an arms race in chemical agents steadily expanded and legitimised.”

Theresa May yesterday suggested that Britain was prepared to join any action by the US and France, warning that the Syrian government “must be held to account” for the “barbaric” attack on eastern Ghouta on Saturday.

This newspaper understands Cabinet ministers are urging the Prime Minister to avoid the potential “fiasco” of a Commons defeat on military action, such as that suffered by David Cameron in 2013, and instead take direct measures.

Mrs May has also been warned that failure to join a coalition with the US and France could diminish Britain’s international standing. Donald Trump last night said that he would come to a decision on the American response to the chemical weapons attacks within the “next 24 to 48 hours”. He spoke to Emmanuel Macron, the French president, on Sunday and again last night, pledging a “strong, joint response”.

Government sources said that Mrs May was expected to speak to the US president last night. Potential British action could involve cruise missiles being launched from the Mediterranean or sorties flown by Tornado jets.

Lord Hague was foreign secretary when the government lost its vote for action in Syria, which is widely considered to have emboldened the Assad regime. Recalling the aftermath of the defeat, Lord Hague says the UK became “enfeebled spectators of one of the most destructive conflagrations of our time”. He writes: “We were left with only words, and compared to other nations financing armies or sending forces, words count for very little … We should have learnt from the fiasco of 2013 that abdication of the responsibility and right to act doesn’t make war go away.”

At least 70 people were killed in the attack on the rebel-held town of Douma. A US navy destroyer appeared to be getting into position to attack in the eastern Mediterranean yesterday in what was viewed as a sign of potential cruise missile strikes. Tensions were further heightened by a reported Israeli attack on a Syrian air base.

Ministers are particularly concerned that Jeremy Corbyn is likely to oppose any military intervention in a Commons vote. The Labour leader has been criticised by his MPS for failing to single out the Assad regime, instead condemning “all violence” and “all killings”.

One minister said: “Why would we want to open that Pandora’s box again? There’s no need to go to there, the Prime Minister should take direct action then go to Parliament afterwards.” The Government has no obligation to call a Commons vote on military action, but in recent years it has become a convention.

Tobias Ellwood, the defence minister, said that the chemical weapons attack was “another consequence of blinking” in the 2013 vote, warning “we must stand up” to Syria.

In a warning to Syria and Russia, Mrs May said: “This is about the brutal actions of Assad and his regime, but it is also about the backers of that regime.”

Harriet Alexander

Josie Ensor

DONALD TRUMP promised yesterday that a “major decision” would be taken on Syria imminently, as a US navy destroyer appeared to be getting in position to attack.

The US president – who last year ordered missile strikes on a Syrian airfield after seeing distressing images of civilians poisoned with sarin – looked poised to act again.

“Nothing is off the table,” he said, when asked whether he was considering military action. “We’ll be making that decision very quickly. Probably by the end of today. We cannot allow atrocities like that.”

The attack is thought to have been part of a strategy to capture the rebelheld town of Douma.

Mr Trump said he was consulting military and national security advisers, but that he had little doubt the attack was carried out by Bashar alassad’s regime. “To me there’s not much doubt, but the generals will figure it out,” he said.

“Not only has it been hit, it’s been surrounded. If they are innocent, why aren’t they allowing people to go in and prove [it]? If it’s Russia, if it’s Syria, if it’s Iran, if it’s all of them together we will know very soon.”

Mr Trump had dinner last night with his military leaders, and Nikki Haley, his ambassador to the UN, said the US was prepare to act unilaterally.

Meanwhile, the USS Donald Cook was under way in the Mediterranean after a port call at Larnaca, Cyprus.

A defiant Moscow said yesterday that it had examined patients affected and it did not find traces of chemicals. The Un-backed Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is carrying out its own investigation.

The attack, believed to have been chlorine mixed with a nerve agent, left 40 dead. But Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, said the Eastern Ghouta attack was “fake news” being used in a bid to discredit Russia and to distract from the Skripal poisoning case. He said the OPCW was welcome to visit, under Syrian and Russian protection.

‘Nothing is off the table, we’ll be making that decision very quickly. We cannot allow atrocities like that’

John Bolton, the new national security adviser, was holding a “principals” meeting to prepare options. He and Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, are both critical of Iranian influence in the region, which foreign policy experts believe may have a significant impact on US action in Syria.

Ilan Berman, a former consultant to the CIA, said: “It seems that the new foreign policy advisers are pushing for more involvement in terms of military presence on the ground. Certainly both Mr Bolton and Mr Pompeo are much more concerned with rolling back Iranian influence and the most visible example of Iranian influence today is their involvement in Syria.

“It’s another action entirely to make a military strike against the Syrians when the Russians and Iranians are so closely involved – anything that Mr Trump does has the potential for fairly significant escalation depending on the targets hit. The thing that is least complicated is repeating something they did before – submarine strikes that don’t come into Russian airspace or hit Russian troops.”

The attack will muddle Mr Trump’s exit plan and threaten to draw America into a direct confrontation with Russia. Jim Mattis, the defence secretary, yesterday accused Russia of falling short on its obligations to ensure that Syria abandoned chemical weapons. “Why are chemical weapons still being used at all when Russia was the framework guarantor of removing all the chemical weapons?” he asked.

Yesterday, Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy for Syria, and Thomas Markram, the deputy to the high representative for disarmament affairs, briefed the UN security council on the situation in the country.

Mr de Mistura, who called for an urgent investigation into the possible use of chemical weapons, said that for the first time in his four years in the role, he had “reached a point when I am expressing a concern about international security – not only regional or national or Syrian”.

He warned of the dangers posed by the conflicting interests of global and regional powers, and said there was a threat of “escalation that can have devastating outcomes that are impossible for us even to imagine”.