He said the upcoming visit by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Moscow should "lead to an agreement on the part of the Russians that they will not allow Syria to ever again use chemical weapons". It is on a hilltop in Sant'Anna di Stazzema near the city of Lucca.
The U.S. attacked the Syrian air base in retaliation for what it said was a chemical weapons assault by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that killed dozens of civilians, including many children.
Foreign ministers of the G7 group of nations, which include the US, Japan, Britain and Germany, were gathering in Lucca, Italy, on Monday, where Syria was likley to dominate the agenda.
A Downing Street spokesman said: "Theresa May tonight spoke with US President Trump to discuss last week's chemical weapons attack in Syria and the US response".
Tillerson and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, spoke by phone on Saturday, according to a statement posted on the official Facebook page of the Russian Foreign Ministry, which said the USA had initiated the call.
Many interpreted the Trump-ordered strike to be a reversal of his administration's previous policy - but since then, White House officials have given mixed messages about future U.S. The U.S. military action has renewed the world's focus on Assad's fate and on Syria's civil war, now in its seventh year.
"We will be discussing the possibility of further sanctions certainly on some of the Syrian military figures and indeed on some of the Russian military figures who have been involved in co-ordinating the Syrian military efforts and are thereby contaminated by the appalling behaviour of the Assad regime", Mr Johnson told reporters.
But the official said the presence of the surveillance drone over the hospital couldn't have been a coincidence, and that Russian Federation must have known the chemical weapons attack was coming and that victims were seeking treatment.
Strikes conducted on site of Syria chemical attack
Johnson condemned Russia's continued defense of Assad "even after the chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians". They have also apparently redirected a Black Sea Frigate armed with cruise missiles to the Syrian port of Tartus.
He said the USA intends to return to full offensive air operations as soon as possible. That's unsurprising, as the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) hasn't even been able to confirm that the attack took place yet, though the U.S. quickly attacked Syria on that basis without waiting for such a determination.
Until Monday, U.S. officials had said they weren't sure whether Russian Federation or Syria operated the drone.
The G-7 meeting comes as the United States is sending a Navy carrier strike group toward the Korean Peninsula to provide a physical presence following North Korea's persistent ballistic missile tests. Tillerson answered a question about effecting regime change by saying the USA was organizing a coalition to do just that.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Tory former foreign secretary Lord Hague, said the "sad truth" has dawned on President Trump that "Russia under Putin is not a reliable partner". It was last used before the USA stuck the Syrian base, to give Russian troops time to retreat.
"The raging civil war in Syria, the violent conflicts around the world", he said, "require an global community that pulls together, that holds each other to account and that strives everyday not to repeat the bad mistakes of the past".
The struggle against terrorism, relations with Iran and on-going instability in Ukraine will also come up for discussion, with talks due to kick off at 4.30 p.m. (1430 GMT).
The US urged Russian Federation on Sunday to rein in the Syrian regime, warning that any further chemical attacks would be "very damaging" to their relationship and suggesting any peace deal would be hard with Assad in power.




Comments