Keep Assad in power to defeat ISIS in Syria, says former UK military chief

David Cameron should abandon his “contradictory war aims” and accept that President Bashar al-Assad must remain in power to allow his army to take the lead in defeating Islamic State forces in Syria, former chief of the defence staff Gen David Richards has said.

As the prime minister prepares the ground for a Commons vote on extending RAF airstrikes against Isis forces from Iraq to Syria, Lord Richards called for Britain and other allied nations to broker a deal with Russia that would pave the way for Assad’s forces to lead the charge against Isis on the ground.

In an interview on BBC Radio he said: “At the moment we’ve got contradictory war aims. We want to deal with Isis but we also want to get rid of Assad at the same time. I personally don’t think that’s plausible. Any general will tell you you need to have unity of purpose and clear aims in a war. That muddies those aims.”

The prime minister, who had insisted that Assad must be removed from power as a first step to building a new settlement in Syria, has softened his language in recent weeks as he seeks to win Russian support for targeting Isis. He has spoken of how Assad could remain in power for a transitional period as part of an overall political settlement in Syria.

But Richards called for Cameron to go further and to accept that Assad’s army and his Hezbollah and Iranian backers are the only credible force that could fight Isis on the ground in Syria.

(The Guardian)

Caption:  Gen David Richards (The Guardian)