British PM denies Syria strikes climbdown

The British government on Nov 3 denied it was abandoning plans for a parliamentary vote to join air strikes in Syria as an influential committee of MPs advised against action.

Newspaper reports suggested Prime Minister David Cameron had abandoned plans to seek parliamentary approval to extend missions against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadist group from Iraq into neighbouring Syria.
 
That came after an MPs' panel said Britain should not do so without a clear strategy to defeat the jihadist group and bring peace to the country.
 
But Cameron's office said his position had not changed and the premier would not seek a vote without broad support across the House of Commons.
 
"He's consistently said that we would only go back to the House on this issue if there was clear consensus," a Downing Street source said.
 
"Meanwhile, the government continues to work to bring the conflict to an end in Syria and we are working closely with our allies to inject greater momentum into efforts to find a political solution."  

The Commons Foreign Affairs Committee -- a cross-party MPs' body which scrutinises Britain's foreign policy -- said in a new report that Cameron's focus on joining air strikes was "incoherent" and "a distraction".
 
"We are concerned that the government is focusing on extending airstrikes to Syria... without any expectation that its action will be militarily decisive, and without a coherent and long-term plan for defeating ISIL and ending the civil war," said committee chairman Crispin Blunt, a senior MP from Cameron's Conservative Party.
 
"There is now a miscellany of uncoordinated military engagements by an alarming range of international actors in Iraq and...