BackDavid Cameron urges UK Syria strikes to counter ‘urgent’ Islamic State threat
Cameron says Islamic State poses an 'urgent' threat that will intensify the longer the organization is allowed to grow
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London: David Cameron called on lawmakers to back his calls for British air strikes in Syria, saying Islamic State poses an “urgent" threat that will intensify the longer the organization is allowed to grow.
The prime minister addressed Parliament on Thursday, setting out his case for action against the terrorist group, also known as ISIL, in the wake of the attacks on Paris and following progress at peace talks in Vienna. If the government believes it has enough support, Cameron has suggested he wants to call a vote next week.
“We shouldn’t be content with outsourcing our security to our allies," Cameron told a packed chamber of the House of Commons in London. “If we believe that action can help protect us, then we should be with our allies. If we won’t act now, when our friend and ally France has been struck in this way, then our allies in the world can be forgiven for asking: ‘If not now, when?’."
The prime minister’s formal reason for speaking was to respond to a 3 November report from the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, which said Britain should only take part in attacks in Syria if there was a “coherent international strategy." That report, from a panel on which the Conservatives have a majority, was a warning of the doubts many in Parliament have about strikes.
Assad misunderstanding
Before he spoke, Cameron published a 36-page response to the report. It said that calls to seek an alliance with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime — a solution favored by Russia — “misunderstands the causes of the problem and would make matters worse. By inflicting brutal attacks against his own people, Assad has in fact acted as one of ISIL’s greatest recruiting sergeants."
His response conceded there is “no prospect" of an external ground force intervening. Cameron pointed to both the Free Syrian Army and the Kurdish Peshmerga as forces that are able to take and hold ground. “We’re not talking about British forces" on the ground, the prime minister said.
Answering the question of “why us?", Cameron pointed to specific capabilities on Britain’s Tornado fighter-bombers. Their Raptor reconnaissance pods are able to gather intelligence and identify targets, while their Brimstone precision missiles strike with reduced civilian casualties, the prime minister said.
Changing mood
In an early sign that the mood of Parliament is shifting, foreign affairs committee chairman Crispin Blunt told the chamber he now believes Britain’s interests would be best served by joining air strikes.
When Cameron last asked Parliament to back attacks on Syria, in 2013, he lost the vote, a historic defeat for a British prime minister. That was for proposed strikes against the forces of President Assad. A year later, when he returned seeking permission to attack Islamic State, he restricted his proposal to attacking the group in Iraq, which had requested support. Lawmakers gave their backing to attacks on Iraq.
This time, the prime minister said he wasn’t going to risk defeat. “There will not be a vote in this house unless there is a clear majority for action, because we will not hand a publicity coup to ISIL," he said.
Corbyn’s dilemma
The vote will present a problem for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has a long history of opposing British military action. Many of his members of Parliament have expressed support for bombing in recent days. If he agrees to back the plan himself, though, he will be attacked by his core supporters.
If Corbyn tells his party to vote against, he risks seeing a large rebellion, while offering his lawmakers a “free vote" in line with their consciences, would effectively be saying that Britain’s main opposition party has no position on a major issue of foreign policy.
In his initial response to Cameron, Corbyn refused to commit himself, asking whether involvement in attacks would increase the risk of ISIL attacking Britain. Cameron replied that the intelligence advice was that the UK was already near the top of the extremists’ target list. Bloomberg
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