Boris urges action against Syria over sarin atrocity

BORIS Johnson has made a fresh appeal for international action against Bashar Assad after a chemical weapons watchdog ruled an attack in Syria that killed more than 90 people used sarin nerve gas.

The Foreign Secretary said the Syrian President’s brutal regime was behind the atrocity and insisted the findings of the probe “cannot be ignored”.

An investigation by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) yesterday confirmed that sarin nerve gas was used in a deadly attack on a Syrian town.

The attack on Khan Sheikhoun in Syria’s Idlib province on April 4 left more than 90 people dead, including women and children.

OPCW director-general Ahmet Uzumcu condemned the attack as an “atrocity” and said the “perpetrators of this horrific attack must be held accountable for their crimes”.

The investigation did not apportion blame but its findings will be used by a joint United NationsOPCW investigation team to assess who was responsible.

The US State Department said in a statement on Thursday night after the report was circulated to OPCW member states that “the facts reflect a despicable and highly dangerous record of chemical weapons used by the Assad regime”.

President Donald Trump cited images of the aftermath of the Khan Sheikhoun attack when he launched a punitive strike days later, firing cruise missiles on a Syrian government-controlled air base from where US officials said the Syrian military had launched the chemical attack.

It was the first direct American assault on the Syrian government and Mr Trump’s most dramatic military order since becoming President.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has denied using chemical weapons. His staunch ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin, said earlier this month that he believed the attack was “a provocation” staged “by people who wanted to blame him (Assad) for that”.

Both the US and the OPCW were at pains to defend the inquiry’s work. Investigators did not visit the scene of the attack, deeming it too dangerous, but analysed samples from victims and survivors, as well as interviewing witnesses.

Mr Johnson said: “The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has now confirmed that sarin nerve gas was indeed used in a chemical attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in northern Syria on April 4. This confirmation cannot be ignored. The UN-OPCW joint investigative mechanism will now work to identify who was responsible.

“The UK’s own assessment is that the Assad regime almost certainly carried out this abominable attack.

“I urge our international partners to unite behind the need to hold those responsible for this atrocity to account.”