Boris Johnson suggests Russia and Assad guilty of war crimes

Deadly attack on aid convoy likely carried out by Russian aircraft, Foreign Secretary says, which ‘if deliberate’ amounts to a war crime

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has condemned Russia’s actions in supporting Bashar al-Assad’s government in the Syrian civil war, suggesting that the country could be guilty of war crimes.

“[Russian President Vladimir Putin’s] regime is not only handing Assad the revolver, he is using the revolver himself,” Mr Johnson said on The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday.

Both the Russian and Syrian governments deny carrying out the Monday attack on a UN and Syrian Arab Red Crescent aid convoy near Aleppo that killed 20 people. Mr Johnson has previously said he believes the attack was carried out by Russian planes.

Mr Johnson criticised the West’s response to Russian involvement in the five-year conflict as “impotent,” adding that there has been no appetite from Western governments to assemble a “viable” response to the horrific humanitarian situation in the country.

The Syrian government’s renewed attack on rebel-held areas of the northern city of Aleppo is “barbaric,” Mr Johnson added.

President Bashar al-Assad’s air force, backed by Russian jets, launched a ferocious air assault on East Aleppo this week after the breakdown of a US and Russian brokered ceasefire. Residents in the besieged city say they’ve never experienced anything like the current wave of bombings.

Approximately 250,000 people remain trapped in rebel neighbourhoods of the city. At least 52 people died on Saturday alone, including 11 children, the UK based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, and two million people in government and rebel held areas are without running water.

The local civil defence service said rescue efforts have been hampered by the intensity of the bombings, and two of their four operation centres are out of action thanks to targeted strikes.

The death toll is expected to rise as so many remain trapped in rubble.

A Syrian army source told state media this week that the air assault will be “comprehensive” and “will last for some time,” followed up by a ground offensive designed to oust rebel groups for good.

The Syrian army and an allied Shia Palestinian militia managed to capture the Palestinian refugee camp of Handarat from rebels on Saturday. There are reports of fighting between regime forces and rebels on several edges of the city.

Speaking from the United Nations in New York on Friday, Mr Johnson said that the renewed attack showed that President Assad has “no legitimacy” any more.

“Look at what he’s done to his people, his country… he is overwhelmingly responsible [for the deaths of 400,000 people] in this odious conflict.”

Mr Johnson, who was appointed as Foreign Secretary when Theresa May took over as Prime Minister in July, is an advocate for a peace plan in Syria which involves an 18-month hand over to a transitional government, free elections, and the removal of President Bashar al-Assad from power.

The UK, US and France have called an emergency UN security council meeting on Sunday to address the escalating situation in Aleppo.