BBC News – Syria: Parliament recalled to discuss UK’s response
BBC News – Syria: Parliament recalled to discuss UK’s response.
The UK Parliament is to be recalled on Thursday to discuss possible responses to a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria.
David Cameron said MPs would vote on a “clear motion”, amid calls for action against the country’s government.
The UK is considering military options following last week’s suspected attack, which is being investigated by the UN.
The Syrian government said it was not responsible and the US and others were using it as an excuse to attack it.
The US has said there is “clear” evidence that President Bashar al-Assad’s government was behind last week’s attack on the outskirts of Damascus but Russia, a key ally of Syria, has questioned this.
Inspections
US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel has said US forces are “ready to go” if given the order by US President Barack Obama but the facts of what happened need to be fully established before any decisions are taken.
The recall of Parliament on Thursday, just four days before MPs were due to return to the Commons anyway, is an indication of how quickly things are moving.
The list of ministers arriving in Downing Street emphasises that it is the topic occupying the minds of those at the top of government.
David Cameron returned to work early from his holiday.
Foreign Secretary William Hague and Attorney General Dominic Grieve, the government’s chief law officer, were there too.
Labour wants the government to present what it calls the “strategic case” for a British attack on Syria.
But it is the experience of Iraq that will weigh heavily in the minds of many backbenchers, across the House.
Labour’s Jack Straw was the foreign secretary at the time of that conflict.
He told the BBC it had “raised the bar of scepticism about whether military action is justified”.
The Syrian authorities have blamed opposition fighters, with whom they have been involved in a civil war for more than two years.
UN weapons inspectors examined the scene of one of the alleged attacks on Monday but have delayed a second trip to rebel-held suburbs of Damascus after an attack on their convoy.
After cutting short his holiday to deal with the crisis, the prime minister announced that the House of Commons Speaker, John Bercow, had granted his request for Parliament to be recalled from its summer recess four days early.
Mr Cameron wrote on Twitter: “Speaker agrees my request to recall Parliament on Thurs. There’ll be a clear Govt motion & vote on UK response to chemical weapons attacks.”
Mr Cameron has been holding meetings with senior colleagues, including his deputy Nick Clegg and Foreign Secretary William Hague, ahead of a meeting of the National Security Council on Wednesday.
Downing Street has said discussions are continuing with international allies on what to do next and that no decision has been taken on any response. However, the armed forces are drawing up contingency military plans.
It is understood the most likely military response to Wednesday’s suspected chemical weapons attack would be a one-off or limited guided missile strikes on Syrian military targets fired from US Navy warships.
The UK has said any military response would be “proportionate” and lawful – designed to “deter” the use of chemical weapons.
Syrian foreign minister Walid Mualllem said no country in the world would use “a weapon of ultimate destruction against its own people”
Thursday’s Commons vote on the issue would not be legally binding but No 10 sources said the prime minister would listen to the will of Parliament amid concerns from MPs from all parties about the consequences of military intervention.
Although the Commons voted on UK military intervention in Iraq in 2003 and Libya in 2011, Mr Cameron has the final say on deploying troops in conflicts, using Royal Prerogative powers.
Conservative MP Richard Ottaway told the BBC that many MPs felt they had been “misled” about the reasons for going to war in Iraq in 2003 and needed greater certainty this time around.
He urged ministers to make any intelligence about the chemical attacks available to members of Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee – which meets in private.
And former Labour Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Iraq had “raised the bar of scepticism” about the justification for military action and Mr Cameron would have to present a “strong case” for the Assad government’s culpability.
Moscow has warned any foreign intervention in Syria without a UN mandate would be “a grave violation of international law”.
The UN Security Council is made up of 15 states, including five permanent members – China, Russia, France, the US and the UK – who have the power to veto any resolution.
The Obama administration is reportedly studying the Nato-led military campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999 as a potential precedent for intervention without a specific UN mandate.
The US and UK supported more than 70 days of air strikes against the regime of Slobodan Milosevic – in the face of Russian opposition – to protect civilians from further attacks in Kosovo.
But Syria’s foreign minister, Walim Moualem, said the US and its allies were using the alleged chemical attack as a pretext to intervene in the bitter conflict in the country and any “act of aggression” would strengthen the hand of radical elements linked to al-Qaeda.
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