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As it happenedended

House of Commons Syria debate - as it happened: Jeremy Corbyn secures emergency debate on UK military action

PM denies following Donald Trump's lead by launching air strikes

Syria air strikes: How events unfolded

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Theresa May has faced MPs to defend her decision to launch air strikes against the Syrian government, but ducked calls to give parliament a retrospective vote on the matter.

Speaking in the House of Commons, the prime minister dismissed suggestions the government had followed the “whims” of Donald Trump and insisted she had taken the decision to launch strikes because it was in the UK's national interest.

But she faced criticism from MPs, including some on her own benches, for not seeking a vote of parliament before launching the strikes.

Instead, the Commons is likely to vote on the issue on Tuesday after Jeremy Corbyn was granted permission for a debate on intervention in Syria.

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The EU is considering further sanctions against Syria following the alleged chemical attack in Douma, a meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers has announced.

"The European Union will continue to consider further restrictive measures against Syria as long as the repression continues," all 28 representatives said in a statement after their talks in Luxembourg, referring to economic sanctions.

Any new sanctions on Bashar al-Assad's government would build on a series of such EU measures since 2011.

The range from an arms embargo and a ban on dealings with the Syrian central bank to travel bans and asset freezes on Syrian officials, military, business people and scientists accused of developing chemical weapons.

But EU diplomats said there was no discussion on Monday about targetting Russian military figures who, along with Iran, have allowed Mr Assad to regain rebel-held territory in Syria's seven-year war.

Yesterday the US said it would look to impose fresh sanctions on Russia, but the EU did not say it would join those measures.

Additional reporting by Reuters

Jon Sharman16 April 2018 12:45

Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has defended the weekend's airstrikes in Syria, saying the international community had to uphold the international ban on the use of chemical weapons.

Mr Stoltenberg spoke at a joint news conference with Turkey's foreign minister on Monday, after airstrikes by the US, France and Britain that hit Syria. 

He said Russia had "again and again" prevented an independent investigation by the UN and that this left "Nato allies no other alternative than to act the way they acted." 

He added the western alliance "cannot be silent where chemical weapons are used" and that "there was more than enough reason to act and not to act would be to erode the ban on chemical weapons." 

The Nato chief is in Turkey for talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other officials.

AP

Jon Sharman16 April 2018 13:10

The Kremlin has said British allegations chemical weapons inspectors were not being allowed access to Syria's Douma were groundless, adding Russia has consistently supported an investigation into the suspected gas attack.

The UK delegation to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said Russia and Syria had not yet granted inspectors access to the site of the attack.

"We called for an objective investigation. This was at the very beginning after this information [of the attack] appeared. Therefore allegations of this towards Russia are groundless," Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Mr Peskov also said that US-led air strikes carried out in Syria over the weekend were the "latest violation of international law" and that they were an act of aggression.

Reuters

Jon Sharman16 April 2018 13:45

Greek communist party (KKE) supporters have tried to take down a statue of former US president Harry Truman in Athens during a protest against air strikes on Syria by the US, Britain and France.

Protesters used a metal grinder to try to cut off the statue's feet and tug it down with ropes before riot police intervened and fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.

The statue suffered minor damage. At least three protesters were injured, with blood trickling from their heads, a witness said.

Several hundred KKE supporters joined a march to the US embassy, a couple of miles from the statue, in the third demonstration in Athens against Saturday's air strikes on what western powers said were Syrian chemical weapons installations.

Reuters

Jon Sharman16 April 2018 14:01
Jon Sharman16 April 2018 14:17
Jon Sharman16 April 2018 14:32

Britain's envoy to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has said Russian assertions about why a team of inspectors had so far been unable to reach Douma, Syria, were incorrect.

Russian officials have said that the inspectors could not access the area because they had not been cleared by the UN and because of US-led strikes carried out on targets in Syria on Saturday prevented them.

But Ambassador Peter Wilson said at a news conference in The Hague that the UN had cleared the inspectors to go, and they had been unable to reach Douma because Syria and Russia had been unable to guarantee their safety.

Reuters

Jon Sharman16 April 2018 14:37

As we await Theresa May's appearance in the Commons, here is a clip of Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, trailing the imposition of new economic sanctions on Russia last night.

Jon Sharman16 April 2018 15:03

Over the weekend, a poll for The Independent found less than a third of Britons supported taking military action in Syria.

Asked - in the days leading up to Saturday's strikes - to what extent they would back “UK forces conducting targeted air or missile strikes on Syrian government military targets”, just 28 per cent of respondents supported them.

Another 36 per cent opposed action, 26 per cent neither opposed nor supported the strikes and 11 per cent did not know.

Jon Sharman16 April 2018 15:36

More on those proposed US sanctions on Russia, with the White House appearing to contradict Nikki Haley's words yesterday.

Press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement: "We are considering additional sanctions on Russia and a decision will be made in the near future."

Jon Sharman16 April 2018 15:38

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