Syed Kamall, on behalf of the ECR Group. – Mr President, thank you very much for updating the Chamber on your conversation and your briefing from the British Prime Minister. I know that the British Prime Minister is extremely grateful not only for the European support, but also for the international support shown for these actions that were deemed necessary. All of us, many of us, would have wished that the solution could be achieved through diplomatic aims. We wish it could have been achieved through the United Nations, but we all know that Russia has vetoed no less than six times any attempt to address this issue in the UN. Does that mean it is time for inaction? No. What it means is actually that we have to use this in a targeted way.

The American President, the French President and the British Prime Minister have been quite clear that this is not about regime change. It is not about taking sides in a civil war. It is a limited action making sure that we reinstate international norms and rules regarding the use of chemical weapons. The previous speakers have already mentioned how hideous and heinous these crimes are: the use of chemical weapons against your population. We have not been able to solve this purely diplomatically up to now, but now we have sent a message from the international community: limited action based on stopping the use of chemical weapons. Nothing more, nothing less. And let’s all be clear. Whatever our views about other issues and whatever our views about those other issues that divide us in this House, the use of chemical weapons whether on the battlefield, against civilian populations or used to poison individuals, is something that we should all take very seriously. We all know that there are norms that have to be respected, and these norms have been crossed and ignored by the Syrian regime. Let us continue to cooperate as the international community, as well as within the European Union, and let us be clear, but now making sure that we pursue the diplomatic channel with even more vigour, with even more determination, having sent a signal that the use of chemical weapons is clearly unacceptable. Can I thank colleagues from across the Chamber, from across the political spectrum, for their support and the support that they have shown to the national leaders who were involved in the strike.