Foreign Secretary at the EU Foreign Affairs Council
Foreign Secretary comments to media at the EU Foreign Affairs Council
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said:
We have got a very full agenda today (17 October), we are going to be discussing a bit about the future architecture of Europe, we hope to be supportive and offer helpful suggestions if we can.
The bulk of the discussion will probably be about Syria and the continuing crisis in Aleppo that shames humanity frankly; the bombing of civilians, the indiscriminate slaughter of innocent women and children taking place in that City. We will be discussing how to keep that pressure up on the Assad regime and on its puppeteers in the form of the Russian Government. Also of course the Iranians, and what we can do to put pressure there.
As everybody knows there are a variety of things that we are doing, there are economic sanctions, but there is a huge amount of diplomatic pressure of one kind or another also being applied. I stress that the solution to this, the future salvation of Aleppo lies really with the Assad regime and above all the Russians.
It is up to them to pull the plug on this thing, to see sense and I appeal to the greatness of the Russian people to choose a different path and to go for peace, get us back on the path of negotiations in Geneva. That is what we need and that is what we will be discussing.
Further information
- Follow the Foreign Secretary on Twitter @BorisJohnson and Facebook
- Follow the Foreign Office on Twitter @foreignoffice and Facebook
- Follow the Foreign Office on Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn