May: Assad and his Russian backers must be held to account if behind chemical attack in Syria
Theresa May has warned that Russia and the Assad regime will be held to account if the Syrian government is found to have been behind the alleged chemical attack on Syrian civilians this weekend.
Speaking from Copenhagen alongside Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, May said the UK “utterly condemns” the attack in Douma, outside Damascus, in which at least 48 people were killed, many of them thought to be children.
“If confirmed this is yet another example of the Assad regime’s brutality, and brazen disregard for its own people and for its legal obligations not to use these weapons… the regime and its backers including Russia, must be held to account,” she said.
May said the attack fitted “into a troubling wider pattern of acts of aggression and abuse of long-standing international norms on counter-proliferation and the use of chemical weapons”, noting that Russia’s “repeated veto at the UN enabled these rules to be broken and removed mechanism that allow us to investigate and hold to account chemical weapons attacks in Syria”.
She called on the international community to “strengthen its resolve to deal with those who are responsible for carrying out these barbaric attacks, and to allow global norms to be breach in such an appalling way”. The Prime Minister drew parallels with the attack in Salisbury, which she described as similarly reckless, and reiterated her position that there is no other plausible explanation than that Russia was responsible.
Douma is home to more than 100,000 civilians and has been besieged for years by pro-Assad forces, trying to destroy rebel groups, for many years. This morning locals including some rebels began being bussed out to northern Syria, after negotiators announced a deal had been reached in the wake of the suspected toxic gas attack.
Earlier today Boris Johnson and his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian discussed the attack, noting that the Assad regime had been responsible for using poison gas on at least four separate attacks since 2014.
The pair were speaking ahead of today’s emergency meeting of the United Nations’ Security Council, which has been called to discuss the international response.
A spokesperson for the FCO added: “They both condemned the use of chemical weapons by anyone anywhere and they agreed to work together to stand up for the Chemical Weapons Convention and to ensure that there was no impunity for those that use such barbaric weapons.
“They agreed that today’s meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York would be an important next step in determining the international response and that a full range of options should be on the table.”
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) today said it had “grave concerns” about the attack.
“The OPCW Situation Centre has been closely monitoring the incident and made a preliminary analysis of the reports of the alleged use of chemical weapons immediately after they were issued.
“The Fact Finding Mission (FFM) is in the process of gathering further information from all available sources to establish whether chemical weapons were used. The FFM will report its findings to States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention.”