Britain could send troops to Syria to enforce a peace deal, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson declares
The Tory heavyweight said the UK had a “formidable record” of keeping the peace around the world
BRITAIN could send troops to Syria to enforce a peace deal, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson declared today.
The Tory heavyweight said the UK had a “formidable record” of keeping the peace around the world.
And he told peers he could “certainly imagine we would want to be involved” in implementing any agreement.
It came as the former Mayor told peers that Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad should be allowed to run in any election that stems from a political solution for the war-torn country.
In a marked shift of British policy, Mr Johnson said the Government had to be realistic about “how the landscape has changed”.
He said an election properly supervised by the United Nations might be the best way forward in Syria. Asked if that meant allowing Bashar al-Assad to contest the vote he replied: “Yes.”
While insisting it was still the UK view “Assad should go”, he said: “We haven’t at any stage been able to make that happen.
“That’s produced the difficulty that we now face.”
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He added that it was not clear if Britain did achieve the end of the Assad regime that Syria “would be in a better place.”
Boris Johnson demanded Assad step down on taking over the Foreign Secretary post in last summer’s reshuffle.
But he told a cross-party group of peers yesterday that the Russians now dominated events.
And he once more blamed the Commons vote against military intervention in Syrian in 2013 for “leaving the field” to the Russians.
Downing Street last night appeared to slapdown the Foreign Secretary by insisting the Government’s long-standing position was that Assad could not be part of a sustainable peace deal.
The PM’s official spokesman said: “Our position is that Assad cannot deliver a credible Government for the whole of Syria.”