Ed Miliband has written a piece for the Guardian this morning in which he argues that the defeat of the parliamentary motion to intervene in Syria does not mean that Britain become an isolationist country.
Hard-headed but full-hearted engagement with the UN is vital both because it helps establish the moral authority of any recommended course of action, and because it ensures that such action has the very best chance of success. The UN security council is the forum in which Britain should seek to make its case to the world, test that case, and where effective alliances should be built. This does not rule out acting without the authorisation of the security council but in accordance with international law, as was the case with Kosovo. But seeking to work through the UN must be the essential precondition of any action.
Miliband said that he hoped that the G20 meeting in Russia next week would “seek to bring the international community together, and force the warring parties into the political solution that is necessary”. (The Economist has some ideas here about how pressure could be applied to Vladimir Putin, including increasing the west’s influence with the states neighbouring Russia, and blocking the country’s admission to the OECD.)
The Labour leader added that he believes the special relationship “should and will endure”. The US secretary of state, John Kerry, was accused of snubbing Britain in a speech yesterday, by referring to France as “our oldest ally”. He added that the White House was sure that the Assad regime had used chemical weapons, killing more than a thousand people. Barack Obama later said the US was considering a “limited narrow act” in response.
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