The PS believes that the House of Representatives has been incompletely and incorrectly informed about the aid program for Syrian rebel groups. According to Jasper van Dijk, member of SP, this emerges from the independent investigation into this aid. The report of the Cammaert commission was released today. He wants a quick debate with Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra.
The committee says the House was kept “very limited” briefed on the support programme. According to the PS member, the government was not honest about the aid and, moreover, was against the principle of non-intervention. The SP was against the program from the beginning. A large majority supported the programme, which ran between 2015 and 2018. The committee reports that no Dutch articles inadvertently ended up with jihadists or terrorists in those years.
GroenLinks MP Tom van der Lee thinks this is an important point. «Of course, I already knew that intervening in a civil war as complex as the one in Syria, with many warring parties, involves many risks. Importantly, no indication was found that Dutch support went directly to organizations on terrorist lists.’
Right choice
The report reinforces D66’s Sjoerd Sjoerdsma’s belief that the cabinet made the right choice “despite the mistakes it made”. He is relieved that jihadist groups were not unwittingly supported. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should have informed the Chamber better, he thinks. According to him, the report clearly shows how difficult the choice the cabinet had to make at that time was.
Not favorable
At the time, the CDA was not in favor of the aid. “This report acknowledges the concerns the CDA has always expressed about support for the Syrian rebels,” said CDA member of parliament Agnes Mulder. ‘It is good that the investigation we requested has made it clear that the Netherlands has not provided support to terrorist or jihadist organisations. The report also shows that in the future, the Netherlands will have to look at involvement in foreign armed conflicts through a more realistic lens.’ .
Source: BNR
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