THE Government has received another slap in the face for its plan to cement relations with the US by pushing a resolution through the House of Commons to commit British forces to bombing Syria and overthrowing President Assad, a task which it says is essential if ISIL is to be dealt with or managed.
The slap in the face was delivered by the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee, that has a Tory majority, which rejected the plan. It asked:
i)How the proposal would improve the chances of success of the international coalition’s campaign against ISIL;
ii) How the proposed action would contribute to the formation and agreement of a transition plan for Syria;
iii) In the absence of a UN Security Council Resolution, how the Government would address the political, legal, and military risks arising from not having such a resolution;
iv) Whether the proposed action has the agreement of the key regional players (Turkey; Iran; Saudi Arabia; Iraq); if not, whether the Government will seek this before any intervention;
v) Which ground forces will take, hold, and administer territories captured from ISIL in Syria.
On the military imperative it asked: ‘What the overall objective is of the military campaign; whether it expects that it will be a “war-winning” campaign; if so, who would provide war-winning capabilities for the forces; and what the Government expects will be the result of extending airstrikes to Syria’ and ‘What extra capacity the UK would contribute to the Coalition’s actions in Syria.’
The Committee decided: ‘We are persuaded that it is not yet possible for the Government to give a satisfactory explanation on the points listed above. Until it is possible for the Government to address these points we recommend that it does not bring to the House a motion seeking the extension of British military action to Syria.’
The Committee added: ‘We consider that the focus on the extension of air strikes against ISIL in Syria is a distraction from the much bigger and more important task of finding a resolution to the conflict in Syria and thereby removing one of the main facilitators of ISIL’s rise.
The Chairman of the Committee, Crispin Blunt MP, said: ‘We are concerned that the Government is focusing on extending airstrikes to Syria, responding to the powerful sense that something must be done to tackle ISIL in Syria, without any expectation that its action will be militarily decisive, and without a coherent and long-term plan for defeating ISIL and ending the civil war . . .
‘Just as we need a coordinated military strategy to defeat ISIL, we urgently need a complementary political strategy to end the civil war in Syria. By becoming a full combatant in the US led campaign at this stage, the UK risks needlessly compromising its independent diplomatic ability to support an international political solution to the crisis. (News Line emphasis) Right now, the Government should be focusing all its energies supporting the efforts at international diplomacy in Vienna.’ The Tory-led Committee has actually put two fingers up to the US government!
Further it stressed: ‘Success in Vienna would produce an international strategy. There would still be military questions to answer. Until all these points are satisfied, the Government should not try to obtain Parliamentary approval to extend British military action to Syria.’
The parliamentary committee is looking to an agreement with the Assad government and Iran and Russia to form a common front against ISIL as part of an agreement about future developments in Syria.
Cameron and Co want to smash Assad so as to make a deal with ISIL and its backers in the Gulf about dismembering Syria and then tackling Iran. This scheme has now been halted since the number of Tory defectors is believed to be greater than the number of Labour MPs prepared to bomb Syria.
The UK trade unions must now speak up and say that any attempt to go to war with Syria without the support of the House of Commons and the UN Security Council will be met with a general strike.
As far as the News Line is concerned only the Syrian people can decide who rules Syria, and in 2014 they re-elected Assad as their president with a massive majority for a seven-year term.