Act now or let Assad and his mob get away scot-free

Following my trip to Syria this week, I am even more convinced that parliament’s decision in September 2013 not to strike and oust Bashar al-Assad after the Obama Redline disappeared and the Syrian regime’s killing of 1500 people in a massive chemical attack on the Damascus suburb of Ghouta was a dreadful strategic and humanitarian error.

The Syria of 2013 was not like Iraq in 2003 (I was there) as Ed Miliband and many of the then Labour Party believed. But Syria today is like Iraq’s 2003, except there is no British or Western blood associated with it. It is all blood from Russia and the Syrian regime.

In the past 11 years, the Russians and Assad possibly killed half a million civilians and destroyed the country physically and financially. Only 25 per cent of Homs, the third city with a population of over one million, still stands. Just 10-20 per cent of buildings in the rebel suburbs of Damascus still remain.

At around 7:30am on Aug 21 2013, I was on the BBC Today programme trying to describe the atrocities unfolding in the Damascus suburb of Syria when Assad’s regime dropped half a tonne of Sarin. the deadly nerve agent, on to its own people. Today, I am at point zero of that attack and look to my left to see two mass graves surrounded by those who bore witness to this evil. One grave contains 800 women and children, and another holds 600 men, which Assad’s regime sent thugs to blow up and burn any evidence of, adding further horror to this episode. It failed – I can confirm that evidence is intact and awaiting collection to be presented at international court so that one day soon, those who perpetrated such war crimes will at least get some of their just deserts.

On the brighter side, the new Syria is now unshackled from the Assad family, where even a father who buried most of his family after this chemical attack is now a beacon of hope and determination to make tomorrow a better day, and to discard – but not forget – the terror of the past 14 years. This is a hope echoed by new government departments across Damascus we have seen this week, who realised that they are far from perfect but are determined to get there in the end.

The new leader – though once a jihadist – has managed to inspire all and sundry across Syria to dig deep and work together in just 4 weeks. I have visited more churches in the past two days in Damascus and met more vicars than I had in a year back home. I have seen more smiling faces this week than I saw in 10 years of travel previously in Syria. On the surface at least and I judge much deeper in reality, this is a truly secular country again, full of faith and determination.

I do not see screaming jihadists among the HTS soldiers occasionally on the streets. But with my soldier’s eye, they look a professional and disciplined bunch to me. Soon to be fashioned into the “new” Syrian army I understand and rightly so.

For so many years, those of us who bothered to hold a candle for the Syrian people looked down from the country’s north west at the morass of evil emitting from Assad’s Damascus palaces as the regime bombed and gassed its people on an industrial scale. Then, we and they could only dream of a Syria without torture and death, and we could only offer the prospect of redemption through the International Criminal Court and judgement of the free world if they collected evidence of these crimes against humanity. Now, the aftermath and evidence are there for all to see in Ghouta, Douma and across the new “Free Syria”.

However, the clock is ticking and the free world must act with speed and energy. I urge Western and democratic presidents and prime ministers not to dwell too long on historical judgements about Syria’s new leaders – come and see for yourselves and feel the energy of a liberated people – and to commit resources and support before the vanquished axis of evil militia’s regroup and attack this great country again. Do not repeat the folly of the 2003 Iraq elimination of Saddam Hussein and abandon a new nation to the extremists.

The Government has a once in a lifetime opportunity to right the wrong of September 2013. Syria can either rebuild and grow as a moderate, democratic and secular country as 99 per cent of the population want or descend back into the dark ages of Isis, other jihadist groups and Iran, turning the country towards anarchy and civil conflict.

I judge from this week in Syria that Britain is uniquely placed to make a difference. The Syrian Diaspora in the UK are hugely influential and respected by the new government. For instance, the elders and probable governors of Homs all have very close familial British links. It was the British Syrian Diaspora who pretty much set up and ran healthcare in Syria’s north west with the help of people such as David and Elly Nott (who travelled with me), which is now the system that the new government want to replicate across the country. It is the White Helmets who are now tasked with developing the emergency services across Syria and they are funded by the UK, being set up ostensibly by Brits such as James Le Mesurier.

Our Government must be bold. The foreign secretary should be in Damascus tomorrow and I’m happy to guide him. We should open the British Embassy immediately in some format and start getting advice and resources into Syria. This is what the new government wants. They do not need to be told what to do, they just need advice on how to do it.