Corbyn slams Tories’ plans for Syria strikes

The leader of UK Labour opposition party has slammed the Tory government’s plans to take part in the airstrikes in Syria.

Addressing the Commons on Tuesday, Jeremy Corbyn said few bombs and missiles more in Syria won’t transform the situation.

Corbyn also called for an end to the supply of weapons to repressive regimes in the region, warning that they may get into the hands of ISIL terrorists.

The comments come against the backdrop of the efforts by Prime Minister David Cameron to convince MPs to back UK military action against ISIL terrorists in Syria.

David Cameron has pledged to devise a "comprehensive strategy" to win MPs' support for bombing ISIL terrorists in Syria and Iraq.

The prime minister suggested that there could be a fresh vote on the issue in the wake of the recent terror attacks in Paris

Back in 2013, British lawmakers rejected Cameron’s call for carrying out air strikes in Syria.

Who to target?

London-based journalist and political commentator Hafsa Kara-Mustafa believes that Corbyn is mainly concerned about the target of the planned airstrikes in Syria.                

“I think Jeremy Corbyn’s concern is essentially that David Cameron is actually planning to target more the Syrian legitimate government than ISIS stronghold. If we take examples of Iraq and Libya that when you remove the strong political figure heads, you leave the countries into failed states. These failed states are much more easier for groups such as ISIS to develop. So I think Jeremy Corbyn’s concern is essentially about who to target in Syria,” she told Press TV’s UK Desk on Tuesday.

Asked about Corbyn’s comments on arms sales to “repressive regimes”, Kara-Mustafa said the Labour Party leader clearly pointed to Saudi Arabia.

“It’s very much aimed at Saudi Arabia. Jeremy Corbyn has been very clear in opposing any arms sales, especially on such large scales, we have seen in recent weeks, to governments such as Saudi Arabia,” she underscored.

Source of terrorism

The British political analyst also condemned what she called certain countries’ hypocrisy in the battle against terrorism and described arms sales to repressive regimes as the source of terrorism in the Middle East region.

“Of course, we know that they somehow condemn terrorism on the one hand, but they have been funding and supporting groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra and various other organizations within Syria that are merged with the terrorist organizations. So essentially, if you are funding a terrorist group in Syria, you might have been funding ISIS and I think it goes to the heart of the problem which is do not feed the source of terrorism. I think Jeremy Corbyn is trying to say that the source of terrorism is coming from the arms being sold to Saudi Arabia,” Kara-Mustafa concluded.

The UK is seen as Saudi Arabia’s largest arms supplier, “responsible for 36% of all Saudi arms imports.”

According to a report by the Guardian, London has licensed nearly four billion pounds of arms sales to Riyadh and some 240 military staff and civil servants from the UK Ministry of Defense work both in UK and Saudi Arabia to support the contracts. The latest of military contracts includes delivery of 22 British Hawk jets which is worth £1.6 billion.

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