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Islamic State should be involved in Syrian peace talks, says Owen Smith | |||
2016-08-18 | |||
[TELEGRAPH.CO.UK] Owen Smith has suggested Isil fighters should have a seat at the negotiating table if there are talks to end Syria's bloody civil war.
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) would eventually need to be involved in talks to find a resolution to the conflict.
Appearing on the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire show, Mr Smith said "all of the actors" involved in the Syrian crisis should be negotiated with at "some point". In contrast, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said that there was no place for the terrorist group at the negotiating table.
"But at the moment Isil are clearly not interested in negotiating." He added: "At some point, for us to resolve this, we will need to get people round the table." Like we negotiated a settlement with Hitler? Asked the same question, Mr Corbyn said: "They are not going to be round the table. No." Last month, Isil grabbed credit for two attacks in Germany - an axe attack by a 17-year-old Afghan refugee and a suicide kaboom by a Syrian refugee that injured about 20 people. Isil also opened a new front in its war with the West by murdering a French priest in July, the first such attack on a Christian church in Europe. Reports from Syria reveal Isil carry out regular beheadings and people are nabbed Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! for crimes as minor as smoking, listening to music or not wearing the burka. Responding to the comments, Johnny Mercer, a Tory member of the Defence select committee, said: "Owen Smith's suggestion that we should get Isil 'round the table' demonstrates his unfitness for leadership. "Everyone knows negotiation is far more desirable than violence in any conflict, but to suggest it in this case, is to entirely misunderstand and fail to grasp the challenge posed by ISIS. "His desperate attempts to out-Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn have led him to the view that barbaric murderers who behead journalists and lynch homosexuals are now the sort of people that we should negotiate with. "It shows that whoever wins this increasingly bizarre leadership election, I'm afraid Labour just cannot be trusted with keeping us safe." | |||
Posted by:Fred |