During a plenary debate on Tuesday 17 April, the European Parliament came across as clearly divided into two camps over the airstrikes conducted by the USA, France and UK on 13 April against three sites linked to the chemical weapons programme of Bashar al-Assad's Syrian regime in response to the suspected chemical attack in Douma on 7 April.
While most MEPs from the three main political groups – the EPP, S&D and ECR – supported this action, the other political groups criticised...