PM blasts Putin at UN – in front of his minister
THERESA May last night launched a furious attack on Vladimir Putin over the Salisbury poisonings, accusing him of using ‘desperate fabrication’ to hide the identities of his wouldbe assassins.
With the country’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov sitting only metres away, the Prime Minister used a UN Security Council meeting on chemical weapons to point the finger of blame of Russia for the ‘reckless’ nerve agent attack.
As details of one of the suspects’ true identity emerged, Mrs May said the UK had presented ‘detailed evidence against two agents of the Russian state’.
She added: ‘Russia has only sought to obfuscate through desperate fabrication.’ Mrs May also used her address to indicate Britain would bomb Syria again if chemical weapons were used against its people.
In April last year Britain, the US and France bombed military bases near the capital Damascus and the city of Homs, following a chemical attack on the Syrian town of Douma. Praising President Donald Trump, who chaired the meeting, and President Macron for their ‘determination’ she said the decision ‘sent a clear message to the Assad regime: perpetrators of chemical weapons use cannot escape identification’. She added: ‘ The regime’s backers must use their influence to ensure chemical weapons are not used again. For there must be no doubt: we will respond swiftly and appropriately if they are.’
Later, in a major speech to the UN General Assembly, the PM turned her fire on Russia again, attacking authoritarian countries which ‘ crush the basic freedoms and rights of their citizens’ and rounded on ‘ corrupt oligarchies’ and ‘aggressive nationalism’.
‘We have seen what happens when the natural patriotism which is a cornerstone of a healthy society is warped into aggressive nationalism, exploiting fear and uncertainty to promote identity politics at home and belligerent confrontation abroad, while breaking rules and undermining institutions. And we
‘Violations of human rights’
see this when states like Russia flagrantly breach international norms – from the seizing of sovereign territory to the reckless use of chemical weapons on the streets of Britain by agents of the GRU,’ she said.
In a 20-minute address, the PM urged Western leaders to be prepared to act around the world or risk allowing the rise of the ‘extreme Left and extreme Right’.
Warning of a ‘loss of confidence’ in free market and democratic countries, she said they must have the ‘will and confidence to act when the fundamental rules that we live by are broken’. She was careful to make clear she was not endorsing ‘regime change’. But in signalling a more interventionist foreign policy, she said: ‘This is not about repeating the mistakes of the past by trying to impose democracy on other countries.
‘But we should not allow those mistakes to prevent us from protecting people in the face of the worst violations of human rights and human dignity.’
Mrs May told the Security Council there was ‘no greater threat to international peace and security than the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.’
She said Russian vetoes at the UN had stopped the Security Council from ‘ holding the Assad regime to account’.
‘It is my sincere hope that Russia will rejoin the international consensus against the use of chemical weapons.’
Mrs May said there had been a ‘loss of confidence’ in capitalism and liberal democracy as a result of the financial crash, mass migration and technological change. She said the war in Iraq and other ‘military interventionism’ led to questions about using force overseas.
But she warned: ‘Be in no doubt, if we lack the confidence to step up, others will.’