G7 ministers reject Boris Johnson's call for targeted Syria sanctions on Russian officials
Video report by ITV News Correspondent Emma Murphy
Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven industrialised nations have rejected Boris Johnson's call for targeted sanctions against senior Russian and Syrian figures.
The foreign secretary played down the defeat in comments to ITV News after the meeting in Lucca, Italy, suggesting that sanctions were still on the table once further evidence of last week's chemical weapons attack and the involvement of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in it has been collected.
"What this meeting has really achieved - and what we set out to achieve - was an overwhelming message to be delivered by the Americans ... a message to the Russians that this is a moment for them to choose," Mr Johnson told ITV News.
"They can choose to stick like glue to the Assad regime that is poisoning its own people, and poisoning the reputation of Russia, or they can choose to work with the rest of the world - with the Americans, with everybody who cares about Syria - to fight terrorism together."
The foreign secretary had hoped to persuade G7 ministers to back his call for targeted sanctions ahead of a visit to Moscow by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
But there was no consensus on Mr Johnson's proposal among G7 ministers, with Italian foreign minister Angelino Alfano saying of the meeting: "There was a prevalent position, which is very similar to the Italian one. We must have a dialogue with Russia and we must not push Russia into a corner."
The outcome of the Italy meeting will be a disappointment for the British government, which had hoped to strengthen the US hand ahead of Mr Tillerson's meeting Moscow visit.
Mr Johnson, however, was upbeat about the prospect of Russia distancing itself from its Syrian ally in the wake of the chemical attack.
Noting that the chemical attack had prompted US President Donald Trump to launch cruise missiles against a Syrian air base in response, Mr Johnson said there was now "a moment of hope in which kinetic military action, we hope, can be converted into a political opportunity".
Ahead of his trip to Moscow, Mr Tillerson, said: "It is clear to all of us that the reign of the Assad family is coming to an end.
"But the question of how that ends and the transition itself could be very important in our view to the durability, the stability inside of a unified Syria."
US officials raised the stakes ahead of Mr Tillerson's visit to Moscow with the disclosure that the administration had reached the preliminary conclusion that Russia knew in advance of the chemical weapons attack on Khan Sheikhoun, which left at least 80 dead.
The White House, meanwhile, made clear that it could mount further strikes against the regime if there was any fresh use of chemical weapons, despite a threat of retaliation from Russia and Iran.