Tuesday 3 September 2013

Labour MP Joan Ruddock Response to my Letter opposing war in Syria.



Dear Mr Woolford,

Syria

Thank you for your email about Syria.

I am not opposed to the principle of intervention in conflict where it can be shown there is a duty to protect under international law. However, I did not believe the case had been made by the Prime Minister and clearly the recall of parliament had been organised in such a way as to pre-empt the UN inspectors report. I made an intervention on David Cameron to this effect in the debate.

I voted for the Labour motion that set up the stages and conditions that needed to be met before any decision could be taken. This would have meant another debate and vote. I voted against the government motion as, although it did contain some of the assurances Labour had sought, it was promoted as inviting a vote “in principle for military intervention”.

Nothing was said in the debate to convince me that a punitive strike to deter further use of chemical weapons would not have made things much worse.

The Syrian people desperately need a cease-fire and our government should be trying a lot harder to involve all those such as Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia who might be able to broker a settlement.

Thank you once again for taking the time to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

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