‘UK Parliament, not Trump, should set its foreign policy’ – Sturgeon on British strikes in Syria

The UK Parliament, not US President Donald Trump, should define British foreign policy, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said, criticizing Theresa May’s decision to join the US-led military intervention in Syria.

The main question that the British PM hasn’t answered yet is how “this action” against Damascus “taken without parliamentary approval,” will halt the use of chemical weapons or bring “long term peace,” the Scottish National Party (SNP) leader wrote on Twitter. “UK foreign policy should be set by Parliament, not US President, (sic),” she stated.

According to Sturgeon, air strikes have not resolved the crisis situation in Syria so far. “Nothing I’ve heard persuades me they will do so now,” she said, calling for “an international strategy for peace,” not “a course that risks dangerous escalation.”

May authorized the British armed forces to launch an intervention in Syria together with France and the US on Saturday morning. In her speech, she announced "coordinated and targeted strikes to degrade the Syrian regime's chemical weapons capability." The allies insisted that their strikes on Syria were performed in retaliation for the alleged chemical attack by Damascus in the town of Douma, 10 kilometers from the capital, last week.

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The US-led intervention took place before the experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) were due to reach Douma to determine whether the attack had indeed taken place.

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