UK set to back Syria strikes in vote today
Labour deeply split on the issue after Corbyn confirmed he would vote against air strikes
Britain looks poised to join air strikes on Daesh group targets in Syria this week after Prime Minister David Cameron announced Monday that a vote would be held in parliament today.
The announcement came after the main opposition Labour party decided to let its MPs vote with their individual consciences rather than trying to force them to oppose military action, meaning Cameron is set to get the clear majority he wanted.
But Labour was left looking deeply split on the issue after its left-wing leader Jeremy Corbyn confirmed that he would vote against air strikes while a string of other centrist MPs said they would support them.
‘Full debate’
“I can announce that I will be recommending to Cabinet tomorrow that we hold a debate and a vote in the House of Commons to extend the air strikes,” Cameron said in a televised statement. “We will make sure that we have a very long and full debate [today].”
Cameron has wanted Britain to extend its operations against Daesh in Iraq to Syria for months but held back because he would not have been able to gain support from parliament due to Labour opposition.
His previous government suffered one of its most embarrassing defeats in 2013 when it was defeated on a plan to take military action against the regime of President Bashar Al Assad in Syria.
However, in the wake of this month’s Paris attacks which killed 130 people, he has made a fresh push for Britain to extend its role in the fight against Daesh. In his statement, the prime minister said Britain wanted to “answer the call from our allies and work with them because ... [Daesh] is a threat to our country and this is the right thing to do”. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said he was now “confident” that most MPs would support air strikes when there was a vote.
Meanwhile, Corbyn faces the toughest challenge of his nearly three-month leadership over the air strikes vote. His party is split between left-wing MPs, supported by many of the grass roots activists who swept him to power, who oppose the strikes and centrist lawmakers who are in favour.
Monday’s shadow cabinet meeting was told that some 43 per cent of Labour MPs — nearly 100 out of 231 — supported air strikes while 57 per cent or 132 would oppose them. His decision to call a free vote was seen as a way of trying to prevent any resignations from his team over the issue.
Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane near the Syrian border has not only frayed previously warm ties between Russia and Turkey, but has also put a strain on the peace talks for Syria, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesman said yesterday.
Turkey shot down the Russian jet last week, insisting it violated its airspace despite numerous warnings and has said it will not apologise for the incident that killed one Russian pilot and a Russian serviceman trying to retrieve the other pilot.
Russia has claimed that Turkey shot down its plane to protect what he described as Turkish profiteering from the oil trade with Daesh and has slapped a package of sanctions against Turkish products.
Diplomatic rift
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the downing has not only caused a diplomatic rift but would also complicate peace talks for Syria that are taking place in Vienna.
Zakharova said Moscow was now more determined than ever to get other parties to agree on a list of “terrorist” groups in Syria before the next round of talks. Without that, Zakharova said, joint action in Syria would not be possible. Aiming to head off the rift, President Barack Obama, urged Turkey and Russia yesterday to set aside their tensions and focus on the common priority of defeating Daesh.
In a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Paris, Obama vouched for the Nato ally’s right to self-defence, and he pledged a solid US commitment “to Turkey’s security and its sovereignty”. Yet he emphasised the need for Turkey and Russia to “de-escalate” their conflict and not get distracted from the campaign against Daesh and efforts to resolve Syria’s civil war. “We all have a common enemy. That is [Daesh],” Obama said. “I want to make sure that we focus on that threat.”
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu yesterday accused Russia of trying to “cover up” its infringement of Turkey’s airspace with “unfounded” claims that Turkey is illegally importing oil from Daesh. Erdogan has said he is prepared to step down if Russia can prove the oil claims and has urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to do the same if he can’t prove them.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has issued invitations to 65 Syrian opposition figures to attend a conference in Riyadh to try to unify their positions ahead of proposed Syrian peace talks, Saudi newspapers reported yesterday.