The US and Britain said on Sunday that they were considering fresh economic sanctions against the Syrian government and its supporters in response to the continued bombardment of Aleppo, but failed to develop any consensus for tougher military options, including a no-bombing zone.  At the end of four hours of talks in London among the countries backing the Syrian opposition, the British foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, was forced to declare that “there is a lack of political appetite, to put it mildly” among western nations for going to war in Syria.  Johnson has been canvassing support for a no-bombing zone, but there is little support for the proposal either in the White House or Downing Street, largely due to fears it will lead to a Russian counter-strike and a deeper conflagration. Syrian opposition figures are hoping to persuade Hillary Clinton to adopt a more robust attitude, should she become US president next month.  John Kerry, the US secretary of state, said the west will look again at intensifying economic sanctions, but did not specify Russia as a target. “We are considering additional sanctions and we are also making clear that President [Barack] Obama has not taken any options off the table,” Kerry said.  It is understood that the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, a key figure in EU sanctions, is willing to countenance tougher measures, but she is having difficulty persuading her SPD allies in the coalition that they work.  Johnson said the west was looking at new proposals, but added: “I would not pretend that in those proposals there is some magic solution for this appalling slaughter because the real answer lies with those who are perpetrating it, and that is the Assad regime and its puppeteers in the form of the Russians and the Iranians.”  He added: “No option is in principle off the table, but be in no doubt that these so-called military options are extremely difficult and there is, to put it mildly, a lack of political appetite in most European capitals and certainly in the west for that kind of solution at present.  “So we’ve got to work with the tools we have – the tools we have are diplomatic.  “I think the most powerful weapon we have at the moment is our ability to make President Putin and the Russians feel the consequences of what they are doing.”  Johnson and Kerry confirmed they were moving towards introducing fresh sanctions against “the Syrian regime and their supporters”.  Johnson also described as “very significant” the French move to turn a visit from Vladimir Putin to Paris into a discussion about Syria, at which point the Russian president pulled out of the trip. “They are starting to feel the pressure and it is vital that we keep that pressure up,” Johnson said.  “There are a lot of measures that we are proposing to do with extra sanctions on the Syrian regime and their supporters, measures to bring those responsible for war crimes before the international criminal court.  “These things will eventually come to bite the perpetrators of these crimes and they should think about it now.”  He said it was “highly dubious” that Assad’s government and its ally Russia were capable of retaking the city of Aleppo or winning the war, calling on Russia and Iran to show leadership to end the conflict.  “It is up to them to show mercy to those people in that city and get the ceasefire going,” he added.  The lack of fresh ideas is hardly likely to deter Russia or Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, from continuing the military assault on Aleppo. Johnson told the foreign affairs select committee last week that economic sanctions imposed on Russia due to its incursion into Ukraine were biting, but admitted it was hard to know if the Russian economy was in difficulties due to the sanctions or the fall in energy prices.  Kerry has also been made to look politically weak by declaring last week that contacts with the Russians over Syria were being broken off due to Russian breaches of the ceasefire, only to restart talks with Russia on Saturday in Lausanne alongside Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. It appears that Russia excluded France and the UK from those talks in a sign that the old International Syria Support Group is being broken up.  In the fullest account of Saturday’s meeting, Turkey revealed that it had proposed an internationally flagged convoy, as opposed to a UN convoy, to seek to break the siege of Aleppo.  With the US giving few details of the meeting, the Turkish foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, claimed at a press conference that an international convoy carrying the flags of many different countries would “have symbolic value and diminish the possibility of this convoy being attacked”.  He claimed the proposal for an international convoy found support from several parties at the meeting, especially from the UN’s Syria envoy, Staffan de Mistura.  De Mistura has previously appealed to save Aleppo, warning that the city faced total destruction by Christmas.  Çavuşoğlu also urged jihadi groups affiliated with al-Nusra to leave Aleppo, saying the parties had discussed the possibility of settling a ceasefire on the condition that al-Nusra’s presence in the region comes to an end. There has been a dispute over whether al-Nusra fighters should have to leave before a ceasefire.  Cavuşoğlu said: “The terrorists of al-Nusra should be cleared from Aleppo. There were different opinions in the meeting. Some said that first al-Nusra should be gone and then the ceasefire could be settled. Others said the ceasefire should be declared first so that the opposition groups can separate themselves from al-Nusra, and then other terrorists would leave the region,” he added.  “But all the attacks of the regime targeting moderate opposition groups should also be stopped immediately,” he added.  The west, Russia and Syria agree that al-Nusra is a terrorist organisation, but the group is fighting alongside moderate forces in Aleppo backed by the west, and the moderate forces, many with similar ideological affinities, are unwilling to abandon them.  De Mistura has personally offered to accompany the jihadi fighters from the city and ensure their safe passage. But little has been heard of the proposal since he made the personal appeal a week ago.
After talks in London, Boris Johnson concedes there is ‘lack of political appetite’ in west for military action