Russian Embassy taunts Boris Johnson as he calls for protests over Syria bombing

Francesca Gillett12 October 2016
WEST END FINAL

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Boris Johnson had called for protests outside the Russian embassy over the Syria conflict in his first Parliament speech as Foreign Secretary.

Mr Johnson threatened to ignite a fresh diplomatic row with Moscow as he called for demonstrations in protest at the bombing of Aleppo in an emergency House of Commons debate today.

The Foreign Secretary said he would “certainly like to see” anti-war campaigners demonstrating outside Russia’s embassy in London against Russia’s airstrikes on the stricken city.

The Russian embassy in the UK responded by saying it was a “very unusual call” and said: “New form of British diplomacy?”

Earlier, the embassy had appeared to taunt the British Government, posting: "Russia's record on Syria is thousands of freed villages, thousands of tons of humanitarian aid. What's Britain's?"

Mr Johnson has previously angered the Russians by claiming their forces may have been guilty of war crimes last month when airstrikes hit a UN aid convoy near Aleppo, finally ending a fragile ceasefire.

'New form of British diplomacy?': The Russian embassy taunted Boris Johnson over his comments.
PA

In his speech today Mr Johnson said Russia’s president Vladimir Putin was in danger of turning his country into an “international pariah" with the continued support of President Bashar Assad.

"It is the UK week after week that is taking the lead together with our allies in America and in France, all the like-minded nations, in highlighting what is happening in Syria to a world where, I'm afraid, the wells of outrage are growing exhausted," he said.

"There is no commensurate horror, it seems to me, amongst some of those anti-war protest groups. I'd certainly like to see demonstrations outside the Russian embassy. Where is the Stop the War Coalition at the moment? Where are they?"

Mr Johnson also repeated his criticisms of the Russians over the attack on the aid convoy and called for an investigation into the repeated attacks on hospitals in Aleppo saying it was "difficult to avoid the conclusion" they amounted to a war crime.

However Mr Johnson sought to damp down calls from MPs on both sides of the House for the creation of a no-fly zone. While he said he had "every sympathy" with the demands, the Government had to think through the consequences of such a policy.

"We cannot do that unless we are prepared to shoot down planes or helicopters that violate that zone and we need to think very carefully about the consequences," he said.

His comments were echoed by a Downing Street spokesman who said: "The notion that we would somehow be engaged in enforcing a no-fly zone with Russian aircraft in the same airspace is clearly a potentially very difficult and challenging situation.

"It is one which would need to be very carefully looked at and the risks attached to it very carefully analysed before we would head down that path."

The press secretary of the Russian Embassy said: “The speeches of those who participated in the discussion contradict the logic of all previous decisions of the International Syria Support Group as well as UN Security Council resolutions (Britain is a member of both).

“Syria is going through the hard process of defeating terrorists. Pity that the British parliamentarians placed themselves on the wrong side of history this time.”

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