Oz Katerji Profile picture
Ukraine Correspondent. British-Lebanese conflict journalist based in Kyiv. Director of The Battle For Kyiv. Podcasting at @DrillPod & Host of @The_OK_Show.

Sep 18, 2020, 6 tweets

David Cameron to @IainDale: "I certainly don't apologise for stopping Gaddafi in his tracks, that saved lives"

The Libya NFZ is actually one of the few success stories of the Cameron-era, and it's good that he continues to defend it. open.spotify.com/episode/1FHdVW…

Cameron also points out complexity of the failure of Western post-intervention strategy when he explains that the Libyans themselves asked for the West to stay out of the country following the NFZ. Libya remains a post-intervention failure, not a failure of intervention.

Cameron moves on to Syria, says that he offered Ed Miliband everything he asked for before the lead up to the chemical weapons vote, including provision for a second vote before air strikes. "I think it was a piece of political opportunism, and deeply regretful"

Cameron places blame at Obama's feet for failing to get congressional approval for Syria intervention, failing to account for the fact that the US was now being asked to act unilaterally without the support of its closest allies.

Cameron does state that he does not necessarily believe intervention in 2013 would have changed matters much, which corroborates reports that his and Obama's intentions were never much larger than retaliatory surgical strikes.

Discussing the failure to respond to the "red line" Cameron says: "I thought that was a very bad decision for the world, because not only was that message heard in Damascus, but I think it was also heard in Beijing and Moscow and elsewhere"

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