Opposition leader agrees with Cameron over Iraq intervention

Leader of the opposition, and leader of the Labour Party, Ed Miliband, has responded to the UK Prime Minister David Cameron, saying he supports the motion to join airstrikes in Iraq.

“I understand the qualms and for some deep unease about this undertaking,” he said.

He stated that “ISIL is not simply another terrorist organisation” and emphasised that their ideology “has nothing to do with the peaceful religion practiced by billions of people across the world and by millions of our fellow citizens who are appalled by their atrocities.”

In response to criticism over Labour’s original 2003 invasion of Iraq, he said that they “need to learn the lessons of the past.”

“I think there is a heightened responsibility because we did intervene in Iraq…we must believe there is a reasonable prospect of success.”

He stated that the Islamic State were not “an organisation that could or should be negotiated with.”

He stated that “nobody should be in any doubt that this is a difficult mission and should take time,” but said that “failure to act would mean more Mosuls” referring to the capture of Iraq’s second city in June.

He said it was crucial that any action “must not be seen as some new form of imperialism.”

Quoting the resignation letter of the late former foreign secretary Robin Cook – who resigned from the former Labour cabinet over the 2003 invasion – he said he agreed that “Our interests are best protected not by unilateral action, but by multilateral agreement and a world order governed by rules.”