Labour and SNP ‘should have backed Syria strikes’

Syrian opposition leaders in London for talks have said UK politicians should back “any means that lead to a political solution”.

Dr Nasr al-hariri, the president of the Syrian Negotiation Commission involved in stalled talks to end the conflict, said military strikes to prevent further chemical attacks and force Bashar al-assad to the negotiating table were justified.

Dr al-hariri meets today with shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry, who with the SNP opposed airstrikes on the Assad regime last month. “I don’t know what arguments the opposition in the UK used to oppose any strikes in Syria… do they agree that a dictatorship used Sarin and weaponised chlorine many times to kill innocent civilians in their beds,” Dr al-hariri asked. “It is not moral, it is not acceptable.”