President’s warnings had to be followed up with strikes

THE use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime on their own people in Syria has been appalling.

It was wholly right that it was subject to sanction by the United Kingdom, the United States and France.

After the threat of bombing or missile strikes was made by American President Donald Trump, it was also very important that his words of warning were backed up with actions.

The result of inaction would have been to make the West look weak in the face of Assad’s use of chemical weapons against his own people.

It was evident that the targets for the Allied air strikes were selected to avoid local civilian and Russian casualties on the ground in Syria.

Clearly the back channel of communications between the United States and Russia was used to good effect.

From a British perspective, the mission by the RAF showed us the value to the UK and our allies of maintaining the Royal Air Force base at Akrotiri, Cyprus. They also showed the effectiveness of the Storm Shadow missiles – another example of why we need to keep up our level of defence spending in these uncertain times or, even better, increase it.

The Prime Minister also deserves our congratulations for having the moral courage to do the right thing at the right time.

Always seeking approval from Parliament is a recipe for inaction.

That said, Theresa May will now have to explain and defend her actions in the House of Commons on Monday but she deserves our support for her fortitude in this episode.

The next step is to play our part in getting all the parties around the conference table in Geneva to end the civil war in Syria once and for all.

But the West may have to accept that Assad, courtesy of the Russians, is not going anywhere soon. However, a new form of governance is required for Syria in the longer term.

I salute the courage and professionalism of all the UK personnel who took part in the mission.

‘PM had moral courage to do the right thing’