I joined Ayman Asfari and other distinguished guests at the Chatham house screening of the Netflix documentary, White Helmets. It was a moving tribute to the humanitarian work of the Syrian Civil Defense, nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize – 110 of the White Helmets have been killed whilst working as heroic first responders. There is a strong case to provide the 250,000 people in Aleppo, who are being bombed daily by helicopters and aircraft, with the means to defend themselves from air attack – or history may well regard the victims of Aleppo as abandoned by the very people who encouraged them to rebel.
Rupert Wieloch 