News Comment
Writing in the Sunday Times, Michael Fallon, Defence Secretary, said the Kremlin was responsible “by proxy” as the “principal backer” of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Sir Michael said last Tuesday’s gas attack was “barbaric, immoral and illegal” and the response of air strikes from US President Donald Trump was “the right call”.
Riding the American wave, Britain continues to stick its little leg in, stoking the flames for diplomatic conflict on behalf of it’s Atlantic cousins. In a typical dishonest British fashion, no comment will be made to accept Britain’s role in providing political and diplomatic cover to Assad for years. Nothing will be said of UK airstrikes on rebel held areas which helped to shift the balance of power for Assad. Nothing will be said of British rejection of Syrian refugees. And of course, nothing will be said of British culpability in a neighbouring conflict where tens of thousands have died from UK made cluster bombs on innocent men, women and children in Yemen.
The UK has no moral ground to talk about Assad’s chemical weapons, when the UK itself has had a role to play in the Assad regime’s development of a chemical weapons programme. Human rights groups and arms control campaigners have highlighted the government’s own admission that in the 80s the UK exported the chemicals necessary to make sarin to the Syrian regime. The UK also sold specialist equipment after the millennium which it now appears was diverted to the chemical weapons programme. In July 2014, the then foreign secretary, William Hague, confirmed to parliament that the UK had indeed exported chemicals that “were likely to have been diverted for use in the Syrian programme”.
The hypocrisy and political opportunism is astounding. Only in the beginning of this year, foreign secretary Boris Johnson told the Lords international relations committee that a re-think on Syria is needed indicating that the UK accepts that Bashar al-Assad should be allowed to run for re-election in the event of a peace settlement in Syria. In his words “We are getting to the stage where some sort of democratic resolution has got to be introduced … We believe in democracy, we support democracy, and if there is a political solution then I don’t think we can really avoid such a democratic event. I think that is the way forward.”
Not only has the UK given credence to the Assad regime for decades, it has supplied it chemical weapon substances, provided him cover in the whole of the Syria revolution, ignored his war crimes of killing half a million civilians and has even provided it military cover by bombing rebel-held areas. Does the blame only lie with Russia? We don’t think so.
وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا بَعْضُهُمْ أَوْلِيَاءُ بَعْضٍ ۚ إِلَّا تَفْعَلُوهُ تَكُن فِتْنَةٌ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَفَسَادٌ كَبِيرٌ
“And those who disbelieved are allies of one another. If you do not do so, there will be fitnah on earth and great corruption.” {Al-Anfal: 73}
News Article: Russia to blame for Syria deaths – Sir Michael Fallon
Russia is to blame for “every civilian death” in last week’s chemical weapons attack in Syria, Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon has claimed.
Sir Michael, writing in the Sunday Times, said the Kremlin was responsible “by proxy” as the “principal backer” of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
It comes after Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson cancelled a visit to meet his opposite number in Moscow.
The attack has been widely blamed on the Syrian government.
Sir Michael said last Tuesday’s gas attack was “barbaric, immoral and illegal” and the response of air strikes from US President Donald Trump was “the right call”.
Referring to Russia, Sir Michael wrote: “This latest war crime happened on their watch.
“In the past few years, they have had every opportunity to pull levers and stop this civil war. Russia must show the resolve necessary to bring this regime to heel.”
The defence secretary said Syria needed a government in which Mr Assad played no part. He acknowledged achieving that was “not easy, but not impossible”.
“By sending Tomahawk missiles to attack the airfield, aeroplanes and equipment believed to be involved, it has sent a strong signal to the Syrian regime to think twice before using gas in future,” said Sir Michael.
“Justified and appropriate though US action was, it was also necessarily limited. We now need a long-term solution to this conflict.”
Sir Michael said Mr Assad must depart and the search for stability begin.
“Someone who uses barrel bombs and chemicals to kill his own people simply cannot be the future leader of Syria,” he stated.
Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry said Labour’s official position was that the Trump administration should not have acted without UN backing but she conceded that senior figures, including deputy leader Tom Watson, took a different view.
