‘ABSOLUTELY in our national interest’ is how Rugby MP Mark Pawsey described last weekend’s airstrikes against Syria.
The Conservative MP backed Theresa May’s decision to order UK forces to join the US and France in targeted airstrikes on Syrian chemical weapons facilities in the early hours of Saturday morning – without having gained the consent of parliament.
The airstrikes were launched in response to a chemical attack on the town of Douma which left dozens dead.
But the spokesman for a local socialist group slammed the move, accusing Mr Pawsey of being ‘out of touch’.
Mr Pawsey said the government had provided a clear account of how the Syrian President Bashar Assad was responsible for the Douma attack.
He said: “Extensive diplomatic attempts to commit Syria to dismantling its chemical weapon programme have manifestly failed. The international community cannot, and should not, stand idly by and allow the prohibition on these terrible weapons to be so flagrantly breached.
“I know many people in Rugby were concerned that Parliament was not consulted. However, it is rightly the prerogative of the government to make decisions of this nature and then be held to account by Parliament at the first opportunity – which the Prime Minister has done this week.
“While I understand the concerns raised by local residents, because the specific details of military action cannot always be made public in order to safeguard the lives of British service personnel, it will not always be possible or appropriate for Parliament to consider these matters ahead of time.”
He added the Assad regime had used chemical weapons against innocent people on numerous occasions since 2013.
But Pete McLaren, secretary of the Rugby Trade Union and Socialist Coalition, said the government was ‘unbelievably hypocritical’.
He said: “In 2012, 12 months into the present conflict in Syria, Mark Pawsey’s government allowed chemicals – key ingredients in the manufacture of deadly nerve gas – to be exported to Syria.”
Mr McLaren, the former secretary of Rugby Stop The War Coalition, added the airstrikes were likely to kill more innocent civilians and make peace in the region even harder to obtain.
“It will also be seen as yet another unwanted interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation, and another attack on Islam,” he said.
“It will further inflame the conflict, as we have seen with previous US and/or UK led interventions in recent history – Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya for example.
“There was little popular support for this weekend’s attack on Syria. Mark Pawsey is sadly out of touch, and he should understand that his government’s policies could precipitate a major world conflict. What he should be doing is committing to working towards peace in the region.”
