Bashar al-Assad is the “rat of Damascus fleeing to Moscow with his tail between his legs”, the foreign secretary has said after Islamist rebels took control of the Syrian capital over the weekend.
Speaking in the Commons, David Lammy said the Labour government had resisted pressure to re-engage with Assad because he was a “criminal” and a “butcher” who was “never, ever going to change”.
Meanwhile, Keir Starmer said it was “far too early” to take a decision about lifting the UK’s ban on the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which has overthrown Assad. HTS was proscribed as a terrorist group in 2017 because of its association with al-Qaida.
“There were those who used to call Assad the lion of Damascus,” Lammy told the Commons. “Now we see the reality: Assad is the rat of Damascus, fleeing to Moscow with his tail between his legs. How fitting he should end up there.
“Increasingly, other governments were also starting to step up their presence in Damascus. This government chose not to engage. We said no, because Assad is a monster. We said no, because Assad was a dictator whose sole interest was his wealth and his power.
“We said no, because Assad is a criminal who defied all laws and norms to use chemical weapons against the Syrian people. We said no, because Assad is a butcher with the blood of countless innocents on his hands. We said no, because Assad was a drug dealer funding his regime through Captagon and illicit finance. We said no because he was never, ever going to change.”
A string of Arab countries including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan restored relations with Assad’s regime in recent years. Italy faced criticism for pushing the EU to normalise relations with Syria and strike an agreement to return refugees there.
In September, Lammy told the BBC that the UK was “interested in discussing with Italy the schemes they’ve developed, not just with Albania but upstream schemes with Syria and Libya as well”.
A Foreign Office source said Lammy was referring to discussions with Italy, not Syria, about the lessons it had drawn from its migrant repatriation schemes and that upstream work did not necessitate engagement with governments.
In the Commons on Monday, Lammy said Assad’s departure was a “moment of danger” for the region that could see greater numbers of people using “dangerous illegal migration routes” to Europe and the UK. The UK has paused decisions on Syrian asylum claims due to the uncertainty, after several other European countries including Austria and Germany did the same.
There is confusion about the government’s assessment of HTS, which has distanced itself from al-Qaida over the past decade. Its leader, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, has begun using his real name, Ahmed al-Sharaa, wearing western-style clothing and presenting himself as a moderate.
There have been calls for the government to remove HTS from its list of banned terrorist groups so as to engage with the rebels who have taken control of Damascus. But speaking on a diplomatic visit to Saudi Arabia, the prime minister told broadcasters: “No decision is pending at all on this, it is far too early. At the moment the focus has to be on talking to our allies.”
The prime minister’s comments contradicted earlier remarks by Pat McFadden. The Cabinet Office minister told the BBC on Monday morning that the ban on HTS would be looked at “in the days to come” and that “it should be a relatively swift decision … given the speed of the situation on the ground”.
Lammy told MPs that HTS would be judged by its actions. “Thus far, HTS has offered reassurances to minorities in Aleppo, Hama and Damascus,” he said. “They have also committed to cooperating with the international community over monitoring chemical weapons. We will judge HTS by their actions, monitoring closely how they and other parties to this conflict treat all civilians in areas they control.”
The foreign secretary added: “We should recognise that al-Qaida killed hundreds of British citizens in barbaric attacks spanning decades and that was the original reason that this organisation HTS was proscribed.”
He said it was “premature” to discuss resettlement schemes for Syrian refugees and that the government was working to record human rights offences carried out by the Assad regime.
James Cleverly, the former foreign secretary, asked what the timeline was for re-engaging with the Syrian government. Cleverly said reopening an embassy in Damascus already would be hasty and that the priority was international aid.
Emily Thornberry, the chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, said “the last thing that Syrian people want … is for one tyrant to be replaced by another, but the second has an Islamic flag”. She called for inclusive transitional arrangements to be put in place.