UK’s Syria rejection setback for Cameron, strains US ties

LONDON: British Prime Minister David Cameron counted the cost on Friday after a humiliating rejection by Parliament of his call for military action on Syria, a defeat which dealt a severe blow to the “special relationship” with the US.
Cameron suffered the worst setback of his three years in office when lawmakers he had recalled from their summer holidays voted 285 to 272 to defy the government’s motion.
The defeat was doubly damaging for the prime minister because he had already watered down the original motion in response to resistance from the opposition Labour Party, which wanted to wait for evidence from United Nations inspectors that the Syrian regime had launched a chemical attack.
It is believed to be the first time since 1782 that a British government has lost a vote about military action.
A picture emerged of the government’s inept organization of the vote, with some ministers reportedly missing casting their ballots because they failed to hear the warning bell, while Education Secretary Michael Gove screamed abuse at fellow Conservative MPs who had voted against the government.
Defense Minister Philip Hammond prompted fury among opposition ranks after he accused Labour leader Ed Miliband of providing “succor” to the regime of President Bashar Assad by opposing the government.
However, Cameron is likely to bear most responsibility for the result.
He reportedly had pushed Barack Obama to take action over Syria, but now the US president is left to pursue a military option without his closest ally and the country that gave US forces the strongest backing in Iraq and Afghanistan. Cameron tried to put a brave face on the defeat, saying Friday he still wanted to see “a robust response” to the use of chemical weapons and suggested that Britain would increase diplomatic pressure on the Syrian regime, but conceded it could not now take part in military strikes.
Paddy Ashdown, a veteran politician and former special forces member, said Britain’s standing in the world had been hugely diminished by the result.
“It has a profound implication for our country. I think it diminishes our country hugely,” the former Liberal Democrat leader and Bosnia UN high representative told the BBC.
“We now have a bunch of people — the same ones who voted against this last night — who want to get out of Europe and have smashed our relationship with the United States,” he said, in a swipe at rebel Conservative backbenchers.
Earlier he wrote on Twitter: “In 50 years trying to serve my country I have never felt so depressed/ashamed.”
Finance minister George Osborne, considered the most powerful figure in the government after Cameron, acknowledged that Britain’s inability to commit forces to any US-led operation against the Assad regime would damage the so-called “special relationship” with Washington. “I think there will be a national soul-searching about our role in the world and whether Britain wants to play a big part in upholding the international system....,” Osborne told BBC radio.