Jeremy Corbyn has said Donald Trump should “rapidly engage” with Vladimir Putin to restart the Syria peace process, at a tense public event where audience members booed mentions of Syria after questions from journalists.
The Labour leader called for more pressure to be put on Russia to ensure a peaceful settlement in Syria, shortly before Boris Johnson’s call for targeted sanctions against senior Russian and Syrian figures was rejected by G7 foreign ministers.
“I hope that whatever comes out of the G7 today is an agreement they will engage rapidly with Russia, rapidly with all the neighbouring countries who clearly are not in the G7, and reconvene, as a matter of urgency, the Geneva process and have a meaningful ceasefire,” Corbyn said.
“Putin and Trump have got to get together. They are the superpowers of the world. Vladimir Putin can be forced into all sorts of directions if sufficient political and other pressure is put on him.”
Corbyn earlier declined to answer a question about the Syria conflict during an event at the Federation of Small Businesses to announce new policy measures.
As the BBC correspondent Mark Lobel attempted to ask Corbyn a question about Russian sanctions, audience members loudly shouted: “No!”
“I’m sorry, this is the Federation of Small Business conference,” Corbyn said, and he said he would answer the question in front of TV cameras after the event.
A Corbyn spokesman told journalists the “mood in the room” had been against hearing anything from the Labour leader on Syria.
In Italy where the G7 meeting took place, the Italian foreign minister, Angelino Alfano, said there was no consensus for fresh sanctions against Russia. He said the idea had been raised by Johnson, the UK foreign secretary, but he said isolating Russia or pushing it into a corner “would be wrong”.
