Discord in UK cabinet over Syria airstrikes against Islamic State

Russia, Turkey and Germany have stated that they will not take part in US-led airstrikes against militants fighting with the self-styled Islamic State in Iraq.

Britain’s reaction to the plan, officially announced by US President Barack Obama in a televised prime-time speech on Wednesday night, has been less clear.

Earlier this week, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond warned Parliament that launching airstrikes against a country like Syria, which maintains strong air defences, would be “an order of magnitude more complicated” than those in Iraq.

The UK Parliament debated launching airstrikes against Syria in 2013, and ruled against it.

On Thursday Hammond said he was "very clear" that the government will not be “revisiting that position.”

“Britain will not be taking part in airstrikes in Syria," Hammond said.

However, the Prime Minister’s office later appeared to overrule the Foreign Secretary, saying that David Cameron “has not ruled anything out” with regard to joining the US-led strikes in Syria.

A spokesperson for the Prime Minister said Hammond’s comments had been related only to the campaign discussed in 2013, which would have targeted President Bashar al-Assad’s administration.

On the question of the UK launching strikes against IS militants, the spokesperson said that “no decisions have been taken in that regard.”

In reply to Russia’s refusal to join in the US-led “broad coalition” against IS without consent from the United Nations, US Secretary of State John Kerry said simply that “Iraq asked for our help, and international law gives us the right to help states.”