DAVID Cameron is
responsible for the rise of the Islamic State across North Africa due to his
haphazard military intervention in Libya, according to a parliamentary inquiry.
The Remain-backing former Prime
Minister was found to be “ultimately responsible” for the failure of the
controversial 2011 bombing campaign, concluded the foreign affairs committee.
Cameron launched the strikes based on poor intelligence and then
allowed the military mission to switch its objective away from protecting
civilians and towards the removal of Colonel Gaddafi, the report said.
Britain and France launched
airstrikes against Libya after an uprising in the country sparked the Arab
Spring.
The report slams Cameron for being in favour of regime change in
Libya without having planned for the aftermath of Gaddafi’s removal.
It reads: “By the summer of
2011, the limited intervention to protect civilians had drifted into an
opportunist policy of regime change. That policy was not underpinned by a
strategy to support and shape post-Gaddafi Libya.
“The result was political and economic collapse, inter-militia
and intertribal warfare, humanitarian and migrant crises, widespread human
rights violations, the spread of Gaddafi regime weapons across the region and
the growth of Islamic State in north Africa.”
The MPs added: “Through his
decision making...David Cameron was ultimately responsible for the failure to
develop a coherent Libya strategy.
Barack Obama mirrored the report’s findings in a speech he gave
several months ago where he suggested Britain had not done enough “follow up”
work after the conflict.
The 49 page report found Britain failed to recognise Gaddafi’s
threat to the civilian population had been exaggerated, drew up a post-conflict
plan not based on reality.
It also found the UK did not
realise there were Islamist extremists among rebels supported by RAF warplanes
and special forces.
The foreign affairs committee criticised Cameron’s improper
analysis of the motives behind the Libyan uprising.
It stated: “It may be that the UK government was unable to
analyse the nature of the rebellion in Libya due to incomplete intelligence and
insufficient institutional insight and that it was caught up in events as they
developed.
“It could not verify the actual threat to civilians posed by the
Gaddafi regime; it selectively took elements of Muammar Gaddafi’s rhetoric at
face value; and it failed to identify the militant Islamist extremist element
in the rebellion.
UK strategy was founded on erroneous assumptions and an
incomplete understanding of the evidence.”
Cameron and France’s President
at the time, Nicolas Sarkozy, convinced the UN security council to launch
airstrikes in Libya.
After Gaddafi was captured and killed by an angry mob near the
city of Sirte, the report alleges little was done to secure the £30 billion
worth of weapons and ammunition inside the country, some of which has now
dissipated across North Africa and potentially the middle east.
The report states: “The international community’s inability to
secure weapons abandoned by the Gaddafi regime fuelled instability in Libya and
enabled and increased terrorism across north and west Africa and the Middle
East.”
In response to the report’s claims, the Foreign Office said the
decision to intervene was an international one, called for by the Arab League
and authorised by the UN security council.
Colonel Gaddafi was executed by a raging mob after being found hiding in a sewerage tunnel
David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy begged the UN to sanction airstrikes against Libya
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