Sinn Féin Poblachtach condemn the attack on the sovereign territory of Syria in the early morning of 14/April/2018. Under the pretext of retaliation for an alleged chemical attack by Syrian troops in Duma, the USA, UK and France launched many missiles at various targets in Syria. The irony of defending civilians from chemical weapons by firing weapons of mass destruction is clearly lost on the countries involved as well as their cheer-leaders.

The proxy war has been ongoing for over six years now. Independent media reports and photos have shown the world, columns of US flat-bed trucks with Daesh (ISIS) flags, Al Qaeda and its affiliates with NATO weapons. We have even seen weapon and equipment “accidentally” dropped to those opposing President Assad and his troops. Added to this the incursion of Turkish troops into northern Syria as well as attacks from Israel, it is clear this is not a civil war.

It is clear that all outside forces should cease operations on Syrian territory. That the arming, equipping and training of militias must end. For too long outside interference in the internal affairs of a variety of Arab countries has brought nothing but death and destruction to those countries. The deaths of hundreds of men, women and children attempting to cross the Mediterranean bears witness to this.

For those saying this attack was to defend civilians, we need only look to Yemen. Weapons supplied by the UK and USA are used on a daily basis to kill civilians by the Saudi regime. Starvation is being used there as a weapon yet this is ignored. Likewise the actual murders of unarmed people in Gaza over the past week in particular and years in general are equivocated on by the very leaders who authorised last night’s attack. Thankfully, to-date there has been no response from Syria or its allies. We call for restraint in the face of this provocation.

Críoch

Featured picture by Carlos Latuff.

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