David Cameron: World leaders 'miles apart' on Syria

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34393993

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David Cameron has said world leaders are "miles apart" in the search for a solution to the Syria crisis.

In an interview with US TV network CBS, the prime minister said trying to end the country's civil war was the most difficult problem he had faced.

He was speaking before joining a United Nations anti-terror summit in New York.

The PM said he would "work with anyone" but said there would be no "phoney solution" involving working with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The UK and United States believe President Assad has to go, but this view is not shared by Russia or Iran.

Mr Cameron, who met Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Monday, said Iran and Russia both had an influence over what happened in Syria and he stressed the need to persuade both countries that a "new Syria with a different leader" would be in their interests and help get rid of so-called Islamic State (IS), also known as ISIL.

"So far the problem has been that Russia and Iran have not been prepared to contemplate the end state of a Syria without Assad," he said.

He added: "Is this the most difficult intractable problem that President Obama has faced and that I face? Yes.

"We are four years into this. So many people have died and so many have left the country but that doesn't mean you give up.

"Nor should it mean that you go for a sort of phoney solution of thinking you could team up with Assad to fight ISIL, because that would be self defeating. You have to stick to the right path, no matter how long it takes and then persuade others."

The prime minister also said Western governments had not done enough to train moderate opposition forces in Syria, and said the UK drone strike which killed three British IS fighters in Syria last month had "effectively stopped terrorists plotting against the US as well as the UK".

Speaking later at the anti-terror summit, chaired by US President Barack Obama, he set out the scale of the UK's involvement and spoke of the need to win the "propaganda war" and the "battle of hearts and minds".