Tuesday on “CBS This Morning,” British Prime Minister David Cameron said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plan to work with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s current government to fight against ISIS is a “phony solution.”
In discussing Assad, Cameron said, “He has done appalling things, massacred hundreds of thousands of his own citizens, millions have fled. So in my view he has broken international law. He has to go. I know there are some people thinking, ‘well, look, ISIS is even worse than Assad, shouldn’t we somehow cut a deal with Assad to team up and take on ISIS?’ It sounds enticing. Even if you thought it was the right. to do, which it isn’t, it wouldn’t work.”
He continued, “We need a Syria free of ISIS and Assad. The point I’m making is Assad is one of the recruiting sergeants for ISIS because of what he’s done to his people.That is one of the reasons why people are flocking to ISIS to fight for ISIS. So that method that some wouldn’t work. You need a Syria free of both.”
“I think Putin understands that Islamist extremists, terrorism is against Russia’s interest just as it’s against America’s interests or Britain’s interests. He knows that’s a threat for him. But he has been up to now willing to work with Assad. We need to convince him that actually the only way you will have a Syria free of ISIS is to have a replacement of Assad. And that’s what we need these intensive talks and discussion about. The meeting between Obama and Putin last night was important. We need much more of that to try to build some sort of shared understanding,” he added.
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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