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Furious Cabinet row erupts after Wes Streeting blasts Ed Miliband for opposing 2013 military action in Syria
Mr Miliband insisted Streeting was wrong to make assumptions about consequences of the conflict
A CABINET row has erupted after Wes Streeting blasted Ed Miliband for opposing military action in Syria in 2013.
Then-Labour leader Mr Miliband opposed strikes on Bashar al-Assad’s regime over chemical attacks on his own people.
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Mr Miliband, now Energy Secretary, had told his party to vote against PM David Cameron’s military action — in a blow to US plans.
But now Mr Streeting has said: “With hindsight, I think we can say, the hesitation of this country and the United States created a vacuum that Russia moved into and kept Assad in power for much longer.”
The Health Secretary told BBC1’s Question Time: “Do I think that in 2013 had we acted, Russia would have been there and Assad had been propped up for as long as he had? I don’t think that’s true.
"I think if the West had acted faster Assad would’ve been gone.”
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He added: “Inaction is a choice, but so is action.”
Mr Miliband insisted it was wrong to imply the Assad dynasty would have fallen if strikes had gone ahead.
Speaking to Times Radio, he said: “The decision I was confronted with in 2013 was whether we did a bombing of President Assad without any clear plan for British military engagement, where it would lead and what it would mean.
“I believed then, and I do now, that one of the most important lessons of the Iraq war is we shouldn’t go into military intervention without a clear plan, including exit strategy.”
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No 10 said the Government’s priority is the safety of civilians and a peaceful transition of power.
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