Page 17 - AUA TRAVLLER

UK LEADER
SIGNALS SUPPORT FOR
AIRSTRIKES ON SYRIA

PRIME Minister David Cameron says Britain needs to take a greater role in destroying

the Islamic State group in Syria - his most direct signal to date that he will seek to
expand his country’s role in supporting the United States and its allies.
In remarks made to NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Cameron said Britain must do
more fight the group, also known as ISIL. The remarks posted online Saturday fol-
low a commitment to meet NATO targets on military spending and make plain that
Britain now sees the Islamic State group as an explicit threat to national security.
“We know that we have to defeat ISIL, we have to destroy this caliphate, whether
it is in Iraq or in Syria,” he said.
The remarks come only days after Britain’s Ministry of Defense acknowledged
that British forces have already conducted airstrikes over Syria - albeit only
when embedded with coalition forces. Britain has been carrying out surveil-
lance and air-to-air refueling over Syria and launching attacks on neighboring
Iraq, and Defense Secretary Michael Fallon has argued that the mission should
be expanded to Syria.
Cameron is seeking support from the opposition Labour Party, in
an effort to build a unified national position and avoid an-
other embarrassing defeat on Syria. Labour opposed an
effort to join U.S. attacks on Syria in 2013, though that
vote centered on strikes to disrupt the use of chemical
weapons by Bashar Assad’s government.
The British leader also spoke of the need to persuade
young Britons to reject Islamic extremism.
“We’ve got to defeat the narrative of extremism,
even when it’s not connected to the violence,”
Cameron told NBC. “Because it’s the narrative
that is the jumping-off point for these young
people to then go and join this dreadful death
cult in Iraq and Syria.”

ARUBA TRAVELLER - Monday, July 20 2015 17INTERNATIONAL