Mr. Cameron’s step is welcome

The UK authorities are increasingly alarmed that potential jihadists are returning to this country from Syria having learned terrorist techniques and picked up experience of combat.

According to the Independent, more than 100 British men are among thousands of foreigners who are believed to have travelled to Syria to fight alongside al-Qaeda affiliates, amid growing worries by the intelligence agencies that those foreigners would fall under the influence of the al-Qaeda affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra and other terrorist groups fighting the Syrians.

“We now also have to think about Syria as one of the big ungoverned spaces of concern to counter-terrorism in the UK,” a source told the Independent, whose reviewer of terrorism legislation, David Anderson, said: “Jihadi conflicts have the potential to radicalise individuals in the UK and for some individuals who return from fighting abroad to pose a direct threat to the UK.”

The threat from terrorists was illustrated by the killing of Drummer Lee Rigby in May in Woolwich, south-east London, the British Daily pointed out.

This is but a small portion of the Syrian government’s continued warnings against terrorism spillover. Unfortunately, the Europeans, with whom the Syrian government and people have more to share on combating terrorism, have paid no heed and resorted to reckless uncalculated anti-Syria policies through supporting, trainings and arming al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria!

Regardless of how much late is the stance of Mr. David Cameron’s as to refrain from supplying the terrorists in Syria with arms; it is indeed better than never. The need is dire more than ever for an international coordinated effort to uproot and combat terrorism not only in Syria but worldwide.

Mr. Cameron’s step is welcome and can be taken seriously-if true- as a confidence-building measure with the majority of the Syrians on the way to Geneva 2, knowingly that it is taken regardless of the hawkish statements and stances by his wife, Samantha, who occupies no official political position, outgoing Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir David Richards,  and those by Defence Secretary, Philip Hammond, who said that no option was being taken off the table when it came to Syria. The only practical and workable option is through secular, sane and wise politics.

Dr. Mohammad Abdo Al-Ibrahim