Britain won't take military action till UN's Syria probe ends

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Britain won't take military action till UN's Syria probe ends

(Xinhua) 13:35, August 29, 2013

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LONDON, Aug. 29 -- A British government motion published on Wednesday suggests the country may not take military action against Syria until the United Nations completes its investigation on the alleged use of chemical weapons.

The motion, agreed by senior British officials attending the National Security Council meeting, said that "every effort should be made to secure a Security Council Resolution backing military action before any such action is taken."

"The United Nations Secretary General should ensure a briefing to the United Nations Security Council immediately upon the completion of the team's initial mission," it said.

Despite of blaming "the failure of the United Nations Security Council over the last two years" to act unanimously on Syrian, the motion said "a United Nations process must be followed as far as possible to ensure the maximum legitimacy" for any response against Syria.

"Before any direct British involvement in such action a further vote of the House of Commons will take place," it added. The House of Commons will vote on the motion on Thursday.

The team of UN inspectors was set up at the request of the Syrian government in March and initially going to look into the alleged use of chemical weapons in the northern Khan al-Assal town and two other undisclosed locations.

The priority of the UN investigators for the present, however, was to investigate the latest incident that Syrian rebels claimed the chemical weapons attack of President Bashar al-Assad's forces killed as many as 1,300 people in the Damascus suburb of al-Ghouta on Aug. 21.

The Syrian government on Wednesday asked the UN to investigate three alleged chemical attacks carried out by rebels in the Damascus suburbs on August 22, 24 and 25.

According to a survey conducted by The Sun and YouGov, 40 percent of the people are against any form of British involvement in Syria, with 74 percent against deploying British troops, 61 percent against sending full-scale weapons, 50 percent against missile strikes.

Only 25 percent of the surveyed supports missile strikes against Syria.

（Editor：LiangJun、Zhang Qian）