Here’s what happened
Foreign secretary Boris Johnson’s call for new sanctions on Syria and Russia has Tuesday been rejected by G7 leaders.
France and Germany both led opposition to Johnson’s proposal in an attempt to punish the leaders for the chemical weapons attack carried out by Syria last week that killed at least 72 civilians in Idlib.
Johnson had proposed carefully targeted sanctions to include asset freezing and travel bans that would weaken Russian support and the Assad regime.
Angelino Alfano, Italy’s foreign minister hosted the talks in Lucca and said there proved to be “no consensus.” The plan has now been side-lined but not ruled out, however, the summit agreed that Assad must step down and Putin has to choose a side, the west or Assad.
Johnson said after the talks: The reign of the Assad family is coming to an end.”
“The question is how we structure that.”
He added: “I think there is ample opportunity for Russia to be part of the solution.”
He continued to say that last week’s chemical weapons attack does open the door for Putin to drop his support for Assad, “It maybe they have been simply betrayed by their client, by the guy they have been backing,” he said.
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