“Our involvement in a bombing campaign, it plays into the narrative of Isil, of a crusader invasion”, he said. “We decided, President Obama and myself, to scale up our strikes both in Syria and Iraq to broaden their scope, to strengthen our intelligence sharing regarding the targets we might aim at”, Hollande said.
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The letter was met with surprise among the most senior Labour MPs, who were still debating the issue for collective response next week.
While allies of Mr Corbyn appealed for calm within the Labour ranks, critics on the backbenches openly voiced their contempt for his “weak” leadership and urged him to step down.
However, with more than half his top team now against him on the issue, the Labour leader may have little choice but to agree if he wants to stave off a full-scale mutiny.
He said: “I feel there are some people who haven’t quite got used to the idea that the party is in a different place. It depends whether something happens that could swing it – and that could be either way”.
He told MPs that Britain must judge whether inaction in Syria carried greater risks than action.
Current drafts are understood to focus on the Syrian peace process, military plans to “degrade and reduce the threat” posed by Isis and help to provide “immediate humanitarian support and longer-term stabilisation”.
The rally was against a planned vote in Parliament about whether to support a motion for the United Kingdom to starting bombing Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) militants in Syria.
Corbyn is under pressure to allow a free vote.
“Matters of security are perhaps the most solemn decisions that MPs have to make and they have to think about it deeply”, Tom Watson told the Independent on Sunday.
Asked if a vote on action in Syria was certain to go ahead, Fallon said: “No. We are committed to building a consensus, seeing whether there is a majority there”.
“As the Prime Minister has made clear, if we don’t think we have the numbers, we won’t call a vote”.
“We’ve had adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan”, he added, referring to Britain’s role in previous conflicts. “They have got millions of troops”.
Jeremy Corbyn has been accused of using his grass roots powerbase to try to “bounce” the shadow cabinet into opposing air strikes against Islamic State (IS) in Syria. “You could see opinion beginning to shift”, Fallon said. I know as prime minister their bravery, their courage, their professionalism. “I think people will be saying, we will not be pushed around like this”.
Corbyn ally Diane Abbott, addressing anti-war protesters, said Cameron had been contacting Labour MPs to persuade them to vote for the airstrikes.
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NATO, which raised its alert level after the Paris attacks, said its headquarters in the city were open, but some staff had been asked to work from home.
