IN August 2013, MPs rejected by 285-272 votes UK military intervention by the Cameron government to bomb President Bashar al-Assad’s government out of power, and on that basis to reorganise the country and the region.
Since then, we know that UK pilots, seconded to the US airforce, have bombed Syria despite the vote of the House of Commons. Yesterday, PM Cameron came to the House of Commons to urge MPs to vote for British intervention to bomb ISIS, and not the Syrian government, saying that he was not prepared to wait for a political settlement in Syria before tackling ISIS.
He is frightened that, if he waits for the diplomatic process to be completed, President Assad will gain from the struggle that the Syrian army has put up, backed up by Iran, Hezbollah and Russia, and will assert the right of the Syrian people to choose their leadership, without the intervention of the imperialist powers, and declare that he wishes to remain their president.
In August 2013, Cameron’s position was that you had to overthrow Assad before you could tackle IS. Now this has changed to: you have to deal with IS before you can go on to politically transform Syria. What does Cameron have in mind? In the new scenario Britain and its allies would bomb ISIS and then an alleged 70,000 Free Syrian Army troops would occupy the freed territory.
While this is going, on the Syrian army is supposed to stand by and watch an illegal invasion and bombing campaign help a terrorist minority take over a big chunk of Syria. However, there is no army of 70,000 Free Syrians just waiting to march. But the Saudi and Qatari and Turkish authorities could organise 100,000 fighters to take over territory freed from ISIS by UK bombing, as part of ‘Free Syria’.
Why has Cameron’s position changed since 2013? In Libya, the Islamists were bombed into power by the UK and French airforces. In Syria, the refusal of the UK parliament in 2013, allowed Russia to intervene at the request of Assad, to prevent the UK and French bombing the Islamists all the way to Damascus! The Libyan road is a non-starter.
The UK is plotting regime change by occupying a part of the country, liberated from ISIS, with Saudi and Qatari Islamists, to create the conditions to force Assad out of power. Failing that, the country will be partitioned and divided up with Israel taking the water-rich Golan Heights, and Turkey and Saudi Arabia seizing parts of Syria and then parts of northern and western Iraq.
Cameron has already intimated that this ripping up of Sykes-Picot is the ‘last resort’ should it become impossible for imperialism to police the different groups that live in the region. MPs must kick out Cameron’s plan for a British imperialist intervention into Syria, alongside the French and the Americans to reorganise not just Syria but also Iraq.
Everything about Cameron’s plan is a fake, especially that British military intervention has the support of the UN Security Council. It does not. Under the UN Charter, Chapter 7 has to be invoked by the Security Council to authorise any UN-backed military interventions.
This was not possible in this case, since Russia would have vetoed any such measure. Parliament must say no to Britain bombing Syria to clear the way for an army of Islamists to occupy a ‘Free Syria’ from which to organise the removal of President Assad and the Baathists. Only the Syrian people have the right to choose who is to form their government.
The UN does not have that right and neither does any combination of powerful states. Another huge issue is that Cameron’s ‘concern for the sufferings of the Syrian people’ does not extend to the people of Palestine, under decades of occupation and under violent murderous attack every day by the Zionist regime. In fact, Israel is due to be given $50bn of US military aid over the next 10 years to help the US keep the Middle East under its heel.
There must be no British intervention in Syria. Victory to Assad and forward to Palestine, as part of a Federation of Middle Eastern Socialist States!
