Britain says ‘no’ to military action on Syria
British Prime Minister David Cameron suffered a humiliating defeat when his motion in favour of military intervention in Syria was defeated by parliament.
Before and after the shock House of Commons vote to defy Cameron’s bid to win support for military intervention, the White House said America was ready to take unilateral action.
“We have seen the result of the Parliament vote in the UK tonight,” said Caitlin Hayden, a US National Security Council spokeswoman.
“As we’ve said, President Obama’s decision-making will be guided by what is in the best interests of the United States.
“He believes that there are core interests at stake for the United States and that countries who violate international norms regarding chemical weapons need to be held accountable.”
The decision also came after the failure of an improbable eleventh-hour effort by British diplomats to win UN backing for action against Bashar al-Assad’s regime at a meeting of the permanent members of the Security Council.
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“It is clear to me that the British parliament, reflecting the views of the British people, does not want to see British military action. I get that and the government will act accordingly,” Cameron said.
That, combined with deadlock at the United Nations, appeared to effectively sound the death knell for the idea of a broad-based Western military coalition, although other American allies might still participate.
But even before the surprise British vote, the White House had signalled that it was ready to act regardless of UN or allied support.
“We certainly are interested in engaging with the global international community on this issue,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
“But at the same time, the president’s chief accountability is to the American people that he was elected to protect.
“The president believes strongly in making the kinds of decisions and taking the kinds of steps that are necessary to protect our core national security interests that we’ve acknowledged are at stake in this situation.”
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Earlier, envoys from the permanent five members of the UN Security Council – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States – had met at UN headquarters in New York.
The 45-minute meeting was the second since Britain proposed a draft resolution to permit “all necessary measures” to protect Syrian civilians after a suspected chemical weapons attack last week.
But none of the envoys commented as they left.
Earlier in the week reports had suggested that a Western strike was imminent, but questions have been raised about the quality of the intelligence linking Assad to the attack.
The White House has reached out to US lawmakers and given its allies more time to placate domestic opposition and UN inspectors time to complete their mission.
Obama has said the alleged large-scale use of chemical weapons by Assad’s regime is a threat to US security as well as a crime against the Syrian people.
US warships armed with scores of cruise missiles are converging on the eastern Mediterranean, and US military officials have said they are ready to launch a powerful barrage against regime targets in Syria.
Assad’s ally Russia has blocked all attempts to toughen international sanctions against Damascus or authorise outside force to punish or unseat the regime.
Syria, meanwhile, is in the 29th month of a vicious civil war in which more than 100,000 people are credibly reported to have died.
As the stand-off continues, a team of UN inspectors are investigating reports that last week’s gas attack outside Damascus killed more than 350 people, including women and children.
A UN spokesman said Thursday that the team had collected “considerable” evidence and will brief UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon soon after they leave Syria on Saturday.
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