Boris Johnson’s G7 performance supported by Theresa May despite humiliating failure to get UK’s allies to back Russia sanctions
THERESA May has given her backing to Boris Johnson’s performance at the G7 summit despite his humiliating failure to get the UK’s allies to support new sanctions against Russia.
A No10 source suggested the PM was pleased the outcome of the meeting of foreign ministers was an agreement Syria’s dictator Bashar al-Assad cannot stay in power.
But the 30-page communique from the two days of talks in Italy failed to give any mention to Mr Johnson’s flagship proposals of punitive measures against the Kremlin and its allies in Damascus.
That left the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with little in his armoury to take with him as he holds talks with Moscow over the ongoing Middle Eastern crisis.
At the end of the summit in the Tuscan walled city of Lucca the Italian foreign minister Angelino Alfano told reporters “we must not push Russia into a corner”.
And a spokesman for Mr Johnson said the possibility of sanctions was still on the table, adding: “The Foreign Secretary was the one this week at the G7 calling for tough action against those who have killed innocent people.
“Some may criticise but it was simply the right thing to do to try to push other countries to punish war criminals and murderers.”
As the minister landed back in London the spokesman said: “Frankly, it is completely short-sighted and wrong to claim this G7 failed to deliver.”
Chancellor Philip Hammond lined up to defend Mr Johnson today too.
He said the Foreign secretary had pursued the "right approach" to last week's attack and the Government would continue to "lead the way on arguing for a robust approach towards Russian aggression in Syria".
But as Mr Tillerson attempts to put pressure on Vladimir Putin over his support for Assad, the Russian president showed he is unlikely to be phased by America.
He said he was aware of planned "provocations" to blame Syria's government for using chemical weapons, after the barbaric attack which killed 80 civilians last week.
Mr Putin told reporters: "It reminds me of the events in 2003 when US envoys to the Security Council were demonstrating what they said were chemical weapons found in Iraq.
"We have seen it all already."
And former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind told BBC Two's Newsnight he had misgivings about the US-UK push for sanctions.
The Tory said: "But also what we have now got is a worse situation than we started off with because Tillerson will now be told by the Russians, when he sees (Russian foreign minister Sergey) Lavrov 'well, you don't even have the G7 supporting you'."
And the former UK ambassador to Washington Sir Christopher Meyer told the programme: "All we can say is he got himself out on a limb and the branch was cut off in Lucca, Italy at the G7 meeting."