Rod Liddle: UK Correspondent on the UK's response to the fall of Syria's government

Both the US and UK leaders say they're committed to promoting a peaceful formation of a new government in Syria.  

Rebels are in control of the country and former President Bashar al-Assad has fled to Russia.  

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told the BBC his diplomats will be engaging intensively with allies in the region.  

He says there are no tears for Assad but there needs to be a peaceful transition.   

UK Correspondent Rod Liddle told Heather du Plessis-Allan that the UK Government has announced that applications for asylum from Syria are going to be put on hold, and they’re considering sending some back. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Rod Little is with us out of the UK. Hey Rod,
how are you going?

Speaker 2 (00:04):
How are you doing?

Speaker 1 (00:05):
And very well? Thank you. So what's the UK's response
to what's going on in Syria?

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Well, twofold First, in most of the major media over
here have been talking up the victory of the Syrian
rebel forces much in the same way that they sort
of heralded the release from prison of Nelson Mandela. It's
a I think it's probably. I mean, they've just been
saying this is a new moderate. They're not alca either,

(00:34):
you know, don't worry about it. They're going to be
just fine. We've got to get rid of a sad.
I have my doubts about that. I think if I
come back to bite us at the moment, David Lammy,
our Foreign Secretary, God help us, is currently mulling over
the prospect of removing HTS from the list of prescribed

(00:59):
organizations under the idea that they might indeed be reformed.
But I think that would be a very wise, unwise
thing to do at the moment. The other thing, of course,
is the fact that we have many many Syrian refugees
in this country who have come here is a persecution
from Bacharalasad. Now the Austrians have already announced mass deportations

(01:26):
of Syrians. Asset's gone, You're going home. And indeed even
our labor government has now said that all applications for
asilent from Syria are going to be put on hold
and will not be processed. They are thinking of sending
some back.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
So what is it going to take? I meane, I
see Lemmy's got one position, and kirstam as saying, well, well,
you know, hold the horses will have it. It's far
too really to decide whether these guys need to be
taken off the terrorist list or not. What's it going
to take to actually take them off? What do they
have to do to prove them.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Well? Not allowed the country to descend into chaos, and
not announced a kind of general g hard against infidels,
none of which seems very very likely. It seems to
me that we're in the same position with Syria that
we were in twenty ten, with Libya twenty eleven, rather

(02:24):
that you know, well, we keep being told that these
organizations have reformed and are no longer murderous and violent,
and yet you know, we were told that about the Taliban.
It was going to be Taliban to zero. They were
going to be completely different. No, that didn't happen. So

(02:47):
I think we I just hope that Sakeir Starmer prevails
over LAMMI and that we're a bit We're a bit
measured in our response to what happens Insirio.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, here's hoping. Hey, the old business indicators are not
looking too good for a recession, are they.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
No, And you know, I think I've probably got this wrong.
I actually saw back in July that a new labor
government might just provide a bit of an impetus to
the economy, given the years of stagnation under the Conservative Party.
But it has been catastrophic and Rachel Reeves's budget a

(03:29):
month ago has rare two months ago now has really
said the seeds of what looks like becoming a recession.
We are on the edge of a recession. We were
a long way away from that under the Tories, no
matter how inept they were, but we're now on the
edge of a recession. More and more firms are pulling

(03:49):
out of London. The economic indicators are looking very very bad. Indeed.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah, really, hey, Rod, look after yourself. Thanks for talking
us through that. I really appreciate its Rod Little, our
UK correspondent. For more from the mic Asking Breakfast listen
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