Brussels, 30/08/2013 (Agence Europe) - In the evening of 29 August, the UK parliament voted by 285 votes to 272 against the motion supported by Prime Minister David Cameron for intervention in Syria in response to the use of chemical weapons. Cameron is committed to respecting the vote. He said that “it is clear (…) that the British parliament, reflecting the views of the British people, does not want to see British military action”. He stated that he took note of this and that “the government will act accordingly”. The motion condemned the use of chemical weapons in Syria on 21 August 2013 by the Assad regime and concurred that a humanitarian response was required from the international community, involving military action if necessary, which would be legal, proportionate and intended to save lives by preventing any future use of chemical weapons in Syria. A second motion would have had to have been passed to sanction intervention, after publication of the UN inspectors' report on this attack (see EUROPE 10910).
Paris stays on course. France's President François Hollande said that the vote in the UK would make no difference to the French position. “Every country is sovereign in deciding whether to take part in an operation or not. That is valid for the United Kingdom as it is for France”, he said in an interview with French newspaper Le Monde, adding that he would have “an in-depth exchange with Barack Obama” on 30 August. “The chemical massacre in Damascus neither can nor must go unpunished”, he stated. “If the Security Council is prevented from taking action, a coalition will form. It will have to be as wide as possible. It will include the Arab League (…). It will have the support of the Europeans. But there are few countries that have the capacity to enforce any sanction through the appropriate means. France will be part of it. It is ready. It will decide on its position in close liaison with its allies”, he added.
Sébastien Brabant, the spokesperson for High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton, said that the EU took note of the debate in the British parliament and Cameron's statement. “But it is not up to us to comment on internal debates”, he added.
Faced with this rejection, US Secretary of State Chuck Hagel said that “our approach is to continue to find an international collation that will act together”. The diplomatic adviser to the Kremlin, Yuri Ushakov, welcomed the British parliament's rejection, saying that intervention could have damaged “the system based on the central role of the United Nations and dealt a serious blow (…) to world order” (our translation). (CG/transl.fl)