Syria & Iran – ‘Stop the War Coalition’ speaker in Dublin, Saturday 7 September

A poll conducted for The Sun newspaper by YouGov found that just one in four Britons support air strikes against Syria while two out of four are firmly against.

AS the United States and Britain set the scene for military strikes against the Syrian regime after last week’s reported chemical gas attack in a Damascus suburb even without hard evidence of who was responsible, Ireland’s Peace & Neutrality Alliance is hosting a speaker in Dublin next week from the ‘Stop the War Coalition’ from Britain.

Ian Chamberlain of the ‘Stop the War Coalition’ will be speaking at Connolly Books, 43 East Essex Street, Dublin 2, on Saturday 7 September at 3:30pm on the crisis affecting Syria, threatening Iran and a possible wider conflict in the Middle East.

A poll conducted for The Sun newspaper by YouGov found that just one in four Britons support air strikes against Syria while two out of four are firmly against.

Roger Cole of the Peace & Neutrality Alliance accuses the USA and Britain of being committed to “perpetual war” in the Middle East, having launched assaults on Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.

“Now they plan to launch another war on Syria,” Roger Cole says. “They know that by doing so, they will destroy the state of Syria, place in power the Al-Qaeda-led rebels, and ensure the total liquidation of the Christians and other minorities in Syria, including moderate Sunni.

“The consequence of this new imperial adventure is opposed in public opinion polls by the decisive majority of the American people. They were lied to by the US political elite and its warmongering corporate media when they said there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to justify its invasion and conquest. It is an elite that cannot be believed and is not believed.”

Since 1996, the Peace & Neutrality Alliance has opposed Ireland's integration into the US/EU/NATO military structures, especially by the use of Shannon Airport by millions of US troops.

Roger Cole adds:

“As the 1913 Lockout is remembered by the state, we should also remember that one the leaders of that struggle against the rich and powerful warmongers, James Connolly, in October 1914 established the Irish Neutrality League, a league that included Arthur Griffith and Countess Markievicz.

“PANA in advocating Irish neutrality, independence and democracy is part of a long and powerful tradition that we are confident will revive and will be reborn as these wars drag on and on.”

◼ Press TV reports that the Vatican's official daily has criticised Western powers for “escalating their war rhetoric” against Syria despite an ongoing UN investigation into the recent alleged chemical attack.

“The tones are becoming ever more drastic and the action being taken by the United Nations appears subjected to a sort of crossfire,” the Osservatore Romano newspaper wrote on Tuesday.

The daily said that “various international actors appear no longer to consider the investigation a determining factor”, adding that “what commitment there was” to a negotiated settlement “appears to be dying out”.

On Thursday, the Vatican’s permanent observer at the United Nations in Geneva called for caution over opposition allegations that the Syrian Government was responsible for the attack.

“There should not be a judgment until there is sufficient proof,” Monsignor Silvano Tomasi said.

“What immediate interest would the government in Damascus have in causing such a tragedy?" he asked, adding that the real question is who really benefits from “this inhuman crime.”

Pointing to the havoc caused by the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Press TV adds, Tomasi said that “armed intervention does not bring any constructive results”.