‘UK must stop al Qaeda getting Syria’s weapons’

A senior MP today said Britain should be ready to send forces into Syria to prevent al Qaeda getting hold of the regime’s chemical weapons.

Andrew Rosindell, who sits on the foreign affairs committee, said if Bashar Assad’s dictatorship collapsed the weapons could be stolen by terrorists and used against the UK.

“I would certainly advocate action to ensure the weapons are put beyond use and if it does mean going in for that purpose, it’s something we should seriously consider,” he said.

“I’m not convinced we should go into Syria to intervene in the civil war, but if it’s for our own interest to secure these weapons then that is something we should definitely consider.”

He added: “If they fell into the wrong hands that would be disastrous and you could end up with them being used against us — we would have to locate them and make sure action is taken to destroy them.”

His comments come as reports from Syria claim rebels are closing in on chemical weapon stockpiles in the town of al-Safira. In the United States Senator John McCain, the 2008 presidential candidate, also argued that an international force should be ready to prevent militants grabbing Syria’s deadly weapons. He said: “They cannot fall into the hands of the jihadists.”

Syrian state media today reported that president Assad’s prime minister, Wael al-Halqi, narrowly avoided assassination in a bomb attack in central Damascus. He was unhurt but the UK-based Syria Observatory for Human Rights said one person was killed.

The two-year civil war in Syria has claimed 70,000 lives and displaced 2.4 million according to estimates.