Johnson urges Moscow to get on right side over Syria
CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT BORIS JOHNSON has offered Russia a chance to end the Syria crisis, saying “they still have time to be on the right side of the argument” as he warns that the United States may strike again.
The Foreign Secretary also branded Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, an “arch-terrorist” and pledged that the UK and allied forces would gather evidence for “war crimes prosecutions for those responsible”.
Mr Johnson went on the front foot after he was criticised for failing publicly to persuade G7 countries to agree to sanctions against Russia for its support of the Assad regime. The news came as up to 100 people were killed in an explosion in northern Syria in an area controlled by opposition fighters.
A car bomb yesterday hit at an evacuation point south of Aleppo where dozens of buses had been parked for more than 30 hours.
Relations with Moscow were strained when President Donald Trump ordered a missile strike against the Syrian airfield from which a chemical attack was launched on civilians earlier this month. The attack killed 70, many of them children who were filmed dead or dying. Mr Johnson
appeals to Moscow to help stop the killing in Syria in an article for
He says: “Assad uses chemical weapons because they are not only horrible and indiscriminate, they are also terrifying.
“In that sense he is himself an arch-terrorist, who has caused such an unquenchable thirst for revenge that he can never hope to govern his population again.
“He is literally and metaphorically toxic, and it is time Russia awoke to that fact. They still have time to be on the right side of the argument.”
Russia hosted foreign ministers from Iran and Syria late last week in a show of support for Assad’s government days after the US missile strike.
The Russians could “join a coalition of more than 60 countries in the fight against Daesh [Isil] with the prospect of more productive relations with President Trump and in the knowledge that the West will eventually help rebuild the country”, Mr Johnson says.
“They should commit to produce a real ceasefire, to end the use of chemical weapons and to bring about a political settlement that relieves the Syrians of the tyranny of Assad.”
Meanwhile, Russian warships have been escorted through the English Channel by the Royal Navy for the third time in six months.
The frigate HMS Sutherland escorted two Russian vessels – Soobrazitelny and Boiky – through the Channel overnight.
Sir Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, said: “HMS Sutherland is carefully marking these Russian ships as they pass close to UK waters.
“The Royal Navy maintains a vigilant watch and is always ready to keep Britain safe.”
Mr Johnson also puts Assad on notice that the US stands ready to launch more attacks. He writes: “America has struck and could of course strike again. That alone creates an ambiguity that should prey on the guilty minds of Damascus.”
Mr Johnson has not ruled out further British military intervention in Syria but stresses that this is unlikely given the fall-out from the British and American invasion of Iraq in 2003.
He says: “We all know that we are a very long day’s march from any large-scale deployment.
“The lessons of the 2003 invasion of Iraq are painful, and they understandably affect politicians and public on both sides of the Atlantic.
“We should instead focus relentlessly on the reality of what Assad has done, killed innocents with a banned and abominable weapon.”