Britain’s failure to intervene in Syria ‘has led to atrocities’

BRITAIN’S refusal to intervene in the Syrian conflict has led to “mass atrocity crimes”, MPS have concluded as they called for an inquiry.

UK troops carried out air strikes against the regime of Bashar al-assad, the Syrian president, in April this year following a chemical weapons attack, but calls for action to protect civilians had been made as early as 2011.

MPS who sit on the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee said the “price of inaction” had been “unacceptably high” as they asked for an independent inquiry to examine the UK’S response.

It comes as a major offensive looms in the last major rebel stronghold of Idlib, where the Syrian regime and Russia yesterday carried out air strikes that killed at least two children.

The committee said there had been a “manifest failure to protect civilians and to prevent mass atrocity crimes in Syria”, while the lack of an early response had contributed to a crisis with “repercussions in Europe and the UK”.

The committee accepted that the Government had made a “significant contribution” to humanitarian efforts but the failure to act had resulted in severe consequences and opened the door for Russia and Iran to intervene.

“It has become clear through our inquiry that the price of inaction in the case of Syria has been unacceptably high,” the committee’s report said.

“Starting as a peaceful protest in March 2011 the Syrian conflict has subsequently claimed an estimated 400,000 lives, and led to 11million people, half the Syrian population, being forced to leave their homes.”