May ready to defend strikes on Syria in Commons
Prime Minister braced for backlash over missiles launched without consulting MPs
PRIME MINISTER Theresa May will today tell angry MPs that bombing Syria was in Britain’s national interest and has had strong international support.
Mrs May faces a backlash in the Commons over her decision to order missile attacks on Syria without first consulting Parliament, but she will move to quell the dissent by insisting that the UK joined the United States and France in military action to “alleviate further humanitarian suffering” following last weekend’s chemical weapons attack in Douma that killed more than 40 people.
The PM will say that United Nations Security Council-mandated inspectors have probed previous attacks and decided Bashar Assad’s regime was responsible four times.
“We are confident in our own assessment that the Syrian regime was highly likely responsible for this attack and that its persistent pattern of behaviour meant that it was highly likely to continue using chemical weapons,” she will add.
“There were clearly attempts to block any proper investigation, as we saw with the Russian veto at the UN earlier in the week. And we cannot wait to alleviate further humanitarian suffering caused by chemical weapons attacks.”
Mrs May will explain why she ordered the strikes before taking questions from MPs, and she will also ask for an emergency debate to allow more time for discussion.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he wants a War Powers Act to be passed to stop governments launching military offensives in most circumstances without MPs’ consent.
Russia has repeatedly used its UN veto to block sanctions and investigations during the Syrian civil war but Labour would refuse to back any action in Syria unless it had Russia’s support, Mr Corbyn said.
“If we could get to a process in the UN where you get to a ceasefire,
No proposal on the table at the moment for further attacks. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
you get to a political solution, you then may well get to a situation where there could be a UN force established to enforce that ceasefire,” he said.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson defended the PM saying “finally the world has said enough is enough”, and that the action was “proportionate”.
David Lidington, the PM’s deputy, said there were “no plans” for a law change and he would not rule anything in or out about whether the MPs would get a vote if fresh action is taken.
Foreign Secretary Mr Johnson said: “There is no proposal on the table at the moment for further attacks because so far... the Assad regime has not been so foolish to launch another chemical weapons attack. If and when such a thing were to happen then clearly, with allies, we would study what the options were.”
Mrs May insisted the deployment of British missiles in response to the Douma chemical attack was “both right and legal”, while Nato allies had given the action their full support, its secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said.
Syria’s president Bashar Assad said the air strikes against his country were accompanied by a campaign of “lies and misinformation” at the UN. Assad and Russia deny using chemical weapons.
THERESA MAY insisted the cruise missile attack on Syrian targets was “legal” as she defended the decision to go ahead without securing the backing of Parliament.
Speaking in Number 10, the Prime Minister warned Syria that the air strikes should act as a warning over its use of chemical weapons, following reports of the latest in a series of alleged gas attacks last weekend in the town of Douma which left more than 40 people dead.
Mrs May said the Cabinet had taken advice from the Attorney General, National Security Adviser and military chiefs when it met on Thursday before deciding on a joint response with Western allies, the United States and France.
“We agreed that it was both right and legal to take military action together with our closest allies,” she said.
Mrs May explained that four Royal Air Force Tornado GR4s joined the co-ordinated missile strikes at 2am on Saturday, launching Storm Shadow missiles at a base 15 miles west of Homs.
The Prime Minister went on to say that she had spoken to world leaders, including key regional figures such as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, King Abdullah of Jordan and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, to explain why she had ordered British military involvement in the US-led strikes.
Russia and Iran called the use of force by the US, France and Britain a “military crime” and “act of aggression” and Mrs May can expect to come under fierce questioning in the House of Commons today over her decision to order military action without first putting the strategy to MPs.
The Labour Party has called for a new act of parliament to prevent governments pressing ahead with military action without the backing of MPs in most circumstances, while Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has demanded a full Commons debate.
She said that she too wanted a commitment from Mrs May that any further military action in Syria is authorised by a parliamentary vote.
“As well as not necessarily taking Syria a single step closer to peace, there is a real danger, and this is an extremely serious point, that air strikes such as those we saw over the weekend risk further escalating an already dangerous situation,” Ms Sturgeon said.
“The conflict in Syria is a complicated civil war but we see stand-offs between a range of other countries, proxy conflicts, being waged in Syria as well.
“So there is a danger that action that is taken hastily, action that doesn’t necessarily contribute to peace, actually risks not just escalating the civil war but escalating the tensions internationally as well.”
The Stop the War Coalition was planning to stage a protest against British military action in Syria outside Parliament today. A Leeds-based faction of the campaign group’s supporters are also set to stage a protest in Leeds’ Dortmund Square at 5pm.
Campaigners have been further incensed by the choice of language deployed by US president Donald Trump on social media.
President Trump tweeted on Saturday after US, French and British planes and ships launched more than 100 missiles nearly unopposed by Syrian air defences and declared it was “mission accomplished”.
“It is such a great military term, it should be brought back,” Mr Trump said, adding that he knew the media would “seize” on the phrase, but he said that it should be used often.
Although he declared the strikes a success, the Pentagon said the bombing of three chemical-related facilities left enough others intact to enable the Assad government to use banned weapons against civilians if it chooses.
The assault was limited to minimise civilian casualties and avoid direct conflict with Syria’s key ally, Russia, but confusion arose over the extent to which Washington had warned Moscow about the offensive in advance of the missile strikes.
The Pentagon said it gave no explicit warning, yet US ambassador in Moscow John Huntsman said: “Before we took action, the United States communicated with” Russia to “reduce the danger of any Russian or civilian casualties”.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley indicated that the US would step up the pressure on Syrian president Assad today. Mr Trump is expected to announce new economic sanctions against Russia for blocking six attempts by the UN Security Council to make it easier to investigate the use of chemical weapons.
“Everyone is going to feel it at this point,” Ms Haley said, warning of consequences for Assad’s foreign allies. “The international community will not allow chemical weapons to come back into our everyday life. The fact he was making this more normal and that Russia was covering this up, all that has got to stop.”
Ms Haley also made it clear that the US will not pull troops out of Syria right away.
We agreed that it was both right and legal to take military action. Prime Minister Theresa May.