In a surprise announcement on Saturday, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said that because of the situation in Syria, he had canceled a long-delayed official visit to Moscow that was to begin today.
“Developments in Syria have changed the situation fundamentally,” Johnson said in a statement. “My priority is now to continue contact with the US and others in the run-up to the G7 meeting on 10,11 April,” which is to take place in Italy.
The visit to Russia would have been the first by a British foreign secretary in five years, and it had already been postponed once, to accommodate the schedule of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, which meant a meeting of NATO foreign ministers had to be rescheduled.
Photo: EPA
Britain’s relations with Russia have been strained since the assassination in London of Alexander Litvinenko by radiation poisoning in 2006.
The British government has regularly called for the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose government, backed by Russia, is accused of using sarin gas last week against civilians, an attack that killed scores and sickened hundreds.
The attack prompted US President Donald Trump to order a US missile strike on a Syrian air base, an action that Britain supported.
In his statement, Johnson said: “We deplore Russia’s continued defense of the [al-]Assad regime even after the chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians” and called on Moscow to do “everything possible to bring about a political settlement in Syria and work with the rest of the international community to ensure that the shocking events of the last week are never repeated.”
The Russian embassy in London, known lately for its droll efforts to answer any Western criticism of Moscow, posted an orchestral Twitter message (Tchaikovsky) that asked whether Johnson’s canceled visit was “theatrics for lack of an argument.”
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