While the US, France and Germany have backed British Prime Minister Theresa May's government's position that Russia is responsible for the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, British Labor is divided on the issue.
The leader of the main opposition Labor Party, Jeremy Corbyn, warned today that politicians should not "rush (with statements) before the police gather the evidence" and recalled the faulty intelligence conclusions used to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Corbin stated in an article for the Guardian newspaper that it is possible that "Russian criminal groups", rather than the Russian state, are responsible for the nerve gas attack on March 4, since Skripal and his daughter Yulia are in critical condition.
"During my years in parliament, I have seen too many times that sensible thinking in times of international crisis is overwhelmed by emotion and hasty assessments," Corbyn said.
As an example, he cited claims by Great Britain before the Iraq war that the then Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's regime possessed weapons of mass destruction. No such weapon has ever been found.
Corbyn's stance has reignited a row between him, who has criticized Western foreign policy throughout his career, and a section of Labor MPs who are not on the party's left wing.
Several Labor MPs have signed a petition in support of Theresa May's Conservative Government for its position that there is no acceptable alternative explanation other than Russian responsibility for the attack in the English city of Salisbury. They also supported the reaction of the British Government, which expelled 23 Russian diplomats and severed high-level relations with Moscow.
Corbyn's critic, Labor MP Stephen Kinnock, said that there is a "fundamental need for a debate in the party about the worldview" and added that he is one of those members of the Labor Party who think that NATO and the EU are "essentially a force for good", and that there are those who do not agree with it.
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