Boris: We could join strikes to ‘decapitate the monster’ of Assad
‘Very difficult to say no’
BORIS Johnson yesterday likened President Bashar al-Assad to a ‘monster’ that needs ‘decapitating’.
The Foreign Secretary also suggested Britain could join the US in future strikes on the Syrian leader’s chemical weapons stockpiles.
Although no such decision has been taken, he said it would be ‘very difficult’ for the UK to say no if Washington asked for military support.
Mr Johnson was asked in the Commons to explain how Assad could be punished for using chemical weapons without allowing a ‘virulent Islamist regime’ to replace him.
He said efforts to secure peace in the war-torn country must preserve the state’s institutions while ‘decapitating the monster’.
During a statement to MPs on the situation in Syria and North Korea, he said assistance would depend on a ‘reasonable request’ by the Trump administration and in pursuit of ‘similar objectives’.
It is understood action would have to be related to chemical weapons attacks like the use of sarin gas earlier this month in Khan Sheikhoun. Last night it was unclear whether a US request would force a fresh vote. MPs voted against military action in Syria in 2013 following a similar attack.
Asked by former foreign minister Alistair Burt if the UK was bound by that decision, Mr Johnson replied: ‘We were not asked for specific support, but it is my belief, though I stress no such decision has yet been taken... that were such a request to be made in future, were it be a reasonable request in pursuit of similar objectives, then I think it would be very difficult for the United Kingdom to say no.’
In a US strike earlier this month 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles were targeted at an airbase where a suspected chemical attack was launched from.
Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon has said Parliament would be consulted if the UK was asked to take part in other strikes.
Speaking in the Commons, Mr Johnson said Donald Trump had sent an ‘emphatic’ message that the ‘era when Assad’s barbarism was met with passivity and inaction has finally come to an end’. ‘America’s determined response creates an opportunity to break the deadlock and pave the way for a political settlement of Syria’s tragedy,’ he said.
‘But that will only happen if Russia is prepared to bring Assad to the negotiating table and begin a transition to a new government that represents the sole chance of peace in Syria.’
As relations between the UK and Moscow reach a new low, Mr Johnson called on Vladimir Putin to end his ‘blind support’ for Assad. He urged: ‘Stop the gas attacks and the barrel bombs, allow the delivery of aid to those who need it, deliver a real ceasefire and begin the political process that will include a transition away from Assad.’
He said the US had acted with the ‘full support’ of the Government over its missile strikes.
Referring to both Syria and North Korea, he said: ‘In each case, hereditary dictators presiding over cruel tyrannies have challenged the essential rules that underpin our world peace.
‘The United States has responded with strength and resolve and in accordance with its traditional role – as the guarantor of the rules-based system. And in both cases the US has acted with the full support of the British Government.’
Mr Johnson said an analysis of the chemical weapons attack in Khan Sheikhoun had clearly identified ‘chemical signatures’ that are specific to the sarin manufactured by Syria.
He said: ‘There is only one conclusion – that the Assad regime almost certainly gassed its own people in breach of international law and the rules of war’. He said the attack showed the ‘emptiness’ of an agreement reached in 2013 – guaranteed by Russia – that was supposed to rid Syria of chemical weapons.
Sources last night downplayed Mr Johnson’s comments. It is understood there has been no shift in Government policy and it would be unlikely for the US to ask for UK help in strikes. The bombing earlier this month was considered ‘narrowly-focused and limited’.