MOSCOW, September 26 (RIA Novosti) – The United Kingdom is prepared to make the case to extend airstrikes against the Islamic State (IS) beyond Iraq into Syria, if the circumstances call for it, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Friday.
Speaking in the Today program on BBC Radio 4, Hammond said that, if the circumstances are right, and if Britain feels that it can contribute to the goal of defeating the IS and its poisonous ideology, it will make the case for extending airstrikes into Syria.
Hammond noted that such a move would require a second parliamentary vote. The foreign secretary suggested that the legal basis of collective self-defense that the United States used to back its intervention in Syria, could be used by the United Kingdom, since the Iraqi government has said that there is a present threat to Iraq coming from Syria.
British MPs are now debating whether or not the United Kingdom would take part in international airstrikes against the IS militant group, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
The radical Sunni organization has been fighting against the Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, the IS extended its attacks to northern and western Iraq.
The rapid advance of the extremists prompted the United States to establish a multinational coalition to fight against the IS. Washington has carried out a number of airstrikes against IS positions in Iraq and Syria. Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have reportedly taken part in the most recent attacks.
