(CNN) — British Prime Minister David Cameron opened an emergency session of the House of Commons on Thursday by saying the debate on Syria is about “how to respond to one of most abhorrent uses of chemical weapons in a century” — not about regime change or invasion.
“Put simply, is it in Britain’s national interest in maintaining an international taboo against the use of chemical weapons on the battlefield,” Cameron asked lawmakers. “I would say yes it is.”
Cameron told members of the House of Commons — whom he recalled from summer vacation to debate a British response to the deaths of hundreds in a chemical weapons attack outside Damascus last week — that the government would not act without first hearing from U.N. weapons inspectors, giving the United Nations a chance to weigh in and Parliament to have another vote.
But, he said, failing ultimately to act would give Syrian President Bashar al-Assad the unmistakable signal that he could use such weapons “with impunity, Cameron said.
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