The UK government welcomes the fall of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, the deputy prime minister said after rebel forces took control of Damascus on Sunday morning.
Angela Rayner said that Assad, who has waged a bloody war against his own people since a rebellion against him in 13 years ago, “wasn’t exactly good to the Syrian people”.
“The situation looks very serious. If Assad’s regime has fallen I welcome that news,” she told Sky News’ Trevor Phillips on Sunday.
“What we need to see is a political resolution in line with the UN resolutions. We need to see civilians and infrastructure protected. Far too many people have lost their lives; we need stability in that region.”
Rayner said the government had been working to evacuate British citizens from Syria over the weekend and would continue to support them.
Overnight on Sunday, a lightning rebel offensive seized control of Damascus, the Syrian capital. Assad is reported to have fled, but his location was unknown on Sunday morning.
The leading insurgent group in Syria is Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which was proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK on the basis that was an alternate name for al-Qaida. It is also designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN.
John Sawers, a former head of MI6, said the government should review its proscription of the group because it had cut ties with al-Qaida over the past decade.
Sawers argued it would be “rather ridiculous” not to be able to engage with the rebels who had taken control of Syria because of the group’s proscription.
“When I was chief of MI6 10 or 12 years ago, we looked at all of these Syrian opposition groups and classified them into those that we could support and those who were beyond the pale and too close to al-Qaida, and Tahrir al-Sham was definitely in the latter category,” Sawers told Sky News.
“I think Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, the leader, has made great efforts over the last 10 years to distance himself from those terrorist groups and certainly the actions we’ve seen of Tahrir al-Sham over the last two weeks has been those of a liberation movement, not of a terrorist organisation.
“So, I think the home secretary will be asking MI5 and the joint terrorism assessment centre for a review of the situation about Tahrir al-Sham and whether it should remain on the proscribed entity list.
“It would be rather ridiculous, actually, if we’re unable to engage with the new leadership in Syria because of a proscription dating back 12 years.”
Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, said the Conservatives wanted to see the “right kind of outcome, put the Syrian people first, but also look at the sort of governance structures that could occupy Syria going forward”.
