March to support Assad by Beshr Abdulhadi. Flickr/Some rights reserved.There are signs that the US and its allies are preparing for a major escalation in Syria. The Trump administration has already reacted hastily to the chemical weapon event in Khan Sheikhoun on 4 April this year with a limited cruise missile strike. Since then tensions have risen with the US downing a Syrian Air Force jet and, recently, issuing warnings to the Syrian government regarding alleged use, and alleged potential future use, of prohibited weapons.
This week’s release of the OPCW report into the Khan Sheikhoun event, which finds that ‘Sarin or sarin-like material’ had been used, has been seized upon by UK, US and German officials as confirmation of Syrian government culpability. A statement from UK Ambassador Geoffrey Adams on July 5 asserts that Syrian government responsibility is ‘almost certain’ and that only it has access to ‘a complex nerve agent such as sarin’.
Meanwhile, British MPs Crispin Blunt and Johnny Mercer are advancing the idea of pre-emptive parliamentary authority, whereby military action could be initiated without the need for parliamentary debate, whilst US military build-up within Syria is underway.
