Will Labour engage with HTS?

Is the fall of Bashar al-Assad really cause for celebration in Syria and across the world? UK government politicians have been trying to separate the relief of the dictator’s departure from any sense of celebration about what comes after. This afternoon in the House of Commons, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Assad was a ‘monster’, a ‘dictator’ and a ‘butcher’ and that his downfall was a humiliation for Russia and Iran who supported him. 

Lammy also argued that the UK government had been right to refuse to re-engage with the Syrian regime under Assad. 

This government chose not to re-engage. We said no, because Assad is a monster. We said no because Assad was a dictator whose sole interest was his wealth and his power and we said no because Assad is a criminal who defied all norms to use chemical weapons against the Syrian people. We said no because Assad is a butcher with the blood of countless innocents on his hands and we said no because Assad was a drug dealer, funding his regime through illicit finance and we said no because he was never ever going to change.