David Cameron’s support for launching air strikes on jehadists in Syria has been condemned as “incoherent” by an influential Tory-controlled Commons committee as reports claim that the Prime Minister has dropped plans to push for bombing raids in the country.
The Prime Minister has failed to make the case for launching military action against ISIS fighters in Syria and, MPs say in a new report, is yet to produce a clear plan for defeating the jihadists or ending the country’s bloody civil war.
Dealing a heavy blow to his prospects of winning the backing of MPs for extending air strikes from Iraq to Syria, the report was critical of the government’s lack of strategy.
The Times reported last night that Cameron has abandoned plans to push for air strikes against ISIS in Syria and that the Commons vote on extending military action over the border from Iraq will not now go ahead. It said the Prime Minister had failed to persuade enough of Jeremy Corbyn’s MPs to defy their leader or to quell a Tory rebellion endangering his slim parliamentary majority of 12.
Cameron has been paving the way for launching bombing raids in Syria, announcing moves to bolster SAS operations in the country and to double the number of unmanned drones operating in its airspace.
Ministers have warned that deadly plots against Britain are being orchestrated from ISIS strongholds in Syria, arguing that its border with Iraq is irrelevant in combating the jehadist threat.
But the commons foreign affairs select committee report said: “We believe there should be no extension of British military action into Syria unless there is a coherent international strategy that has a realistic chance of defeating ISIS and of ending the civil war in Syria. In the absence of such a strategy, taking action to meet the desire to do something is still incoherent.”
It listed a series of questions over military and diplomatic planning which it said ministers had failed to answer satisfactorily, and concluded: “Until it is possible for the Government to address these points we recommend it does not bring to the House a motion seeking the extension of British military action to Syria.”
Following his Commons defeat in August 2013 when he sought approval to authorise air strikes against President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, Cameron has pledged to seek MPs’ backing if he wants to order bombing raids in Syria.