\u201cAssad has been clinging on. With the help of Russians and Iranians, and by dint of unrelenting savagery, he has not only recaptured Aleppo. He has also won back most of \u2018operational\u2019 Syria,\u201d<\/em> Johnson wrote<\/a> in a column penned for The Telegraph. While Johnson called for gathering \u201call evidence at Khan Sheikhoun,\u201d<\/em> citing the \u201cpainful\u201d<\/em> lessons of the 2003 Iraq invasion, the British FM seems to have already drawn his conclusions.<\/p>\n Read more<\/p>\n \u201cIt is in some ways bizarre that Bashar al-Assad should be so reckless,\u201d<\/em> Johnson writes, adding that \u201cit seems mystifying that he should now raise the stakes by so blatantly murdering so many of his own people with chemical weapons.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Johnson also seems to have convinced himself that the Assad government also carried out the chemical weapon attack in Ghouta, back in 2013.<\/p>\n \u201cHe learnt that he could get away with it. He learnt that he could cross the \u2018red lines\u2019 of the West with impunity,\u201d<\/em> according to the British foreign minister.<\/p>\n But the climax of his message is somewhat unexpected \u2013 the latest events are \u201cin fact, an opportunity for Russia.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cNow is surely the moment for them to make a sensible compromise \u2013 to join a coalition of more than 60 countries in the fight against Daesh, to maintain their strategic interests in Syria, with the prospect of more productive relations with President Trump and in the knowledge that the West will eventually help rebuild the country,\u201d<\/em> Johnson writes.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Russians saved him. The Russians can help remove him, through a carefully supervised transition process that preserves key institutions of state \u2013 and usher in a stable and pluralist future for the country.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Assad \u201cis 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,\u201d<\/em> Johnson concluded.<\/p>\n Read more<\/p>\n The column comes a couple of days after G7 leaders rejected Johnson\u2019s calls for more sanctions on Russia. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said diplomats had not discussed the issue in any depth, but confirmed Johnson had raised the prospect of sanctions.<\/p>\n In Russia, early reactions in political circles did not show much enthusiasm.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think that joining the Western coalition which just pretends to be fighting Islamic State would be the right choice. As one famous Russian film goes: no, we\u2019d rather welcome you,\u201d<\/em> Franz Klintsevich, a member of the security and defense committee of the upper chamber, told RIA Novosti.<\/p>\n \u201cJohnson is still struggling to find his political image: he either calls for new sanctions (against Russia), or now calls us to join the Western coalition,\u201d<\/em> Aleksey Pushkov, member of the same committee, wrote on Twitter.<\/p>\n On April 4, Syrian President Bashar Assad was accused by Washington of conducting a chemical weapons attack on the town of Khan Shaykhun in the Idlib Province. Two days after the attack, the Trump administration ordered an attack of 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airbase in Homs.<\/p>\n On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov referred to the US missile strike on Shayrat as \u201can act of aggression, which blatantly violated the principles of international law and the UN Charter.\u201d<\/em> He also called on Washington and its allies to respect Syria\u2019s sovereignty, adding that the attack has \u201cserious ramifications not only on regional, but also global security.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" UK Foreign Minister Boris Johnson has suddenly suggested that Moscow join the Western coalition in Syria, saying that Russia could assist in \u201crelieving Syrians of a tyranny\u201d of \u201ctoxic Assad.\u201d Russian MPs were not thrilled by the prospects. \u201cAssad has been clinging on. With the help of Russians and Iranians, and by dint of unrelenting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":304011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-304010","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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