Bashar al-Assad is the “rat of Damascus fleeing to Moscow together with his tail between his legs”, the UK overseas secretary has mentioned after Islamist rebels took management of the Syrian capital over the weekend.
Talking within the Commons, David Lammy mentioned the Labour authorities had resisted stress to re-engage with Assad as a result of he was a “legal” and a “butcher” who was “by no means, ever going to alter”.
It got here as Keir Starmer mentioned it was “far too early” to take a call about lifting the UK’s ban on the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which has overthrown Assad. HTS was proscribed as a terror group in 2017 due to its affiliation with al-Qaida.
“There have been those that used to name Assad the lion of Damascus,” Lammy informed the Commons. “Now we see the fact: Assad is the rat of Damascus, fleeing to Moscow together with his tail between his legs. How becoming he ought to find yourself there.
“More and more, different governments have been additionally beginning to step up their presence in Damascus. This authorities selected to not have interaction. We mentioned no, as a result of Assad is a monster. We mentioned no, as a result of Assad was a dictator whose sole curiosity was his wealth and his energy.
“We mentioned no, as a result of Assad is a legal who defied all legal guidelines and norms to make use of chemical weapons in opposition to the Syrian individuals. We mentioned no, as a result of Assad is a butcher with the blood of numerous innocents on his fingers. We mentioned no, as a result of Assad was a drug vendor funding his regime by means of captagon and illicit finance. We mentioned no as a result of he was by no means, ever going to alter.”
A string of Arab nations together with the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan restored relations with Assad’s regime in recent times. Italy confronted criticism for pushing the EU to normalise relations with Syria and strike an settlement to return refugees there.
In September, Lammy informed the BBC that the UK was “concerned with discussing with Italy the schemes they’ve developed, not simply with Albania however upstream schemes with Syria and Libya as effectively”.
Within the Commons on Monday, Lammy warned that Assad’s departure was a “second of hazard” for the area that might see better numbers of individuals utilizing “harmful unlawful migration routes” to Europe and the UK. The UK has paused choices on Syrian asylum claims as a result of uncertainty, after a number of different European nations together with Austria and Germany did the identical.
There may be confusion concerning the authorities’s evaluation of HTS, which has distanced itself from al-Qaida over the previous decade. Its chief, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, has begun utilizing his actual identify Ahmed al-Sharaa, sporting western-style clothes and presenting himself as a reasonable.
There have been requires the federal government to take away HTS from its record of banned terrorist teams in order to have interaction with the rebels who’ve taken management of Damascus. However talking on a diplomatic go to to Saudi Arabia, the prime minister informed broadcasters: “No choice is pending in any respect on this, it’s far too early. In the mean time the main target needs to be on speaking to our allies.”
The prime minister’s feedback contradicted earlier remarks by Pat McFadden, with the Cupboard Workplace minister telling the BBC on Monday morning that the ban on HTS can be checked out “within the days to return” and that “it must be a comparatively swift choice … given the pace of the scenario on the bottom”.
Lammy informed MPs that HTS can be judged by its actions. “To date, HTS has provided reassurances to minorities in Aleppo, Hama and Damascus,” he mentioned. “They’ve additionally dedicated to cooperating with the worldwide group over monitoring chemical weapons. We’ll decide HTS by their actions, monitoring intently how they and different events to this battle deal with all civilians in areas they management.”
The overseas secretary added: “We should always recognise that al-Qaida killed lots of of British residents in barbaric assaults spanning many years and that was the unique purpose that this organisation HTS was proscribed.”
He mentioned it was “untimely” to debate resettlement schemes for Syrian refugees and that the federal government was working to report human rights offences carried out by the Assad regime.
James Cleverly, the previous overseas secretary, requested what the timeline was for re-engaging with the Syrian authorities. Cleverly mentioned reopening an embassy in Damascus already can be hasty and that the precedence was worldwide assist.
Emily Thornberry, chair of the Commons overseas affairs committee, mentioned that “the very last thing that Syrian individuals need … is for one tyrant to get replaced by one other, however the second has an Islamic flag”. She referred to as for inclusive transitional preparations to be put in place.
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