The US and UK must work with Bashar Assad’s Syrian regime if they are to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the chairman of Britain’s intelligence and security committee warns.

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, one of the UK’s most senior MPs, told the Financial Times (FT) in an exclusive interview that the horrific murder of American journalist, James Foley, highlights the urgent need to take action against the extremist group Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), whose swift rise to power in the Middle East has remained largely unchecked by Western intervention.

While the militants have annexed vast swathes of territory in northern Iraq, their central power base remains in Syria.

“ISIS need to be eliminated and we should not be squeamish about how we do it,” Rifkind told the FT on Friday.

Although he made it clear he does not support the Assad regime in principle, Rifkind reluctantly emphasized that “sometimes you have to develop relationships with people who are extremely nasty in order to get rid of people who are even nastier.”

RT