Britain has ruled out collaborating with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the battle against Takfiri ISIL terrorists based in Syria and Iraq despite growing calls to do so.
With pressure growing for action against the notorious terrorist group that beheaded a US journalist earlier this week, Britain’s Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond insisted on Friday that the only way to tackle the threat was by working with the Iraqi government which has troops on the ground and that dialogue with Assad would not advance the cause.
“We may very well find that on some occasions we are fighting the same people as he [Assad] is but that doesn’t make us his ally and … it wouldn’t be practical, sensible or helpful to even think about going down that route,” Hammond said in a interview with the state-run BBC Radio.
The development comes amid increasing calls by senior current and former British authorities that cooperating with Damascus is essential to defeat the notorious terrorist group.
“I think whether it is above the counter or below the counter, a conversation has got to be held with [Assad] because, if there is any question of airstrikes over Syria, it has got to be with…Assad’s…approval,” said UK’s former army chief Richard Dannatt on Friday.
This is while the chairman of UK parliament’s intelligence and security committee, Malcolm Fifkind, also stated on Friday that “it’s unthinkable that a military operation in Iraq, spearheaded by America and its allies, can exist without some sort of “Syrian dimension.”
He further emphasized that working in tandem with Syria, throughout the duration of this military operation, has almost become inevitable.
