WATCH Theresa May vows Assad ‘will be held to account’ if responsible for Syria chemical attack
2 min read
Theresa May has warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that he “will be held to account" if his regime is found to be responsible for a chemical attack which left dozens of his own citizens dead.
The Prime Minister accused the Assad regime of acting with "brutality and brazen disregard for its own people" as she condemned the atrocity.
Mrs May also rounded on Russia for backing the Syrian government and repeatedly blocking international action in the country.
Speaking in Copenhagen, she said: "If confirmed, this is just another example of the Assad regime’s brutality and brazen disregard for its own people and of its legal obligations not to use these weapons.
“If they are found to be responsible the regime and its backers - including Russia - must be held to account.
“The events of Douma fit into a wider pattern of acts of aggression, use of long standing international laws on counter-proliferation and the use of chemical weapons
“In recent years Russia’s repeated vetoes at the UN have enabled these rules to be broken and have removed mechanisms that allow us to investigate and hold to account chemical weapons attacks in Syria. This must stop.”
The Prime Minister said Britain would ensure that the international community strengthened its resolve “to deal with those responsible for carrying out these barbaric attacks and who allow global laws to be breached in such an appalling way.”
Asked if she would consider British military action in response to the Douma attack Mrs May said: “We will be discussing with our allies what is necessary.”
The Prime Minister also repeated her condemnation of Russia over the Salisbury nerve agent attack against former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
She said: “The UK’s case for holding Russia responsible for the attempted murder of Sergei and Yulia Skripal is clear.
Mr May added that the mounting evidence against Moscow had led the Government to conclude that “that there is no plausible explanation other than that Russia was responsible.”
Earlier, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson described the tragic images of emerging from Syria in the wake of the gas attack as “deeply disturbing” and called for an urgent international response.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called for a ceasefire followed by a political solution in the region, but refused to mention President Assad by name.
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