Britain warns of Syria jihadist threat to Europe

The longer Syria's conflict goes on, the greater the risk it will breed a new generation of battle-hardened militants who will pose a threat to Britain and other countries in Europe, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Thursday. Hague aimed his comments at Russia, which has had its own problems with attacks by Islamist militants, and has along with China repeatedly blocked UN Security Council action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Assad is locked in an almost two-year war with rebels that has killed nearly 70,000 people and has become a magnet for foreign jihadists intent on replacing Assad's mostly secular rule with a radical Islamic state. Hague said Britain had not lost faith in the Arab Spring revolutions that in the last two years have deposed four autocratic leaders, but warned that Syria was the most acute case of the movement being "hijacked" by militants.
Hague, in a speech outlining British counter-terrorism strategy, labelled Syria the "number one destination for jihadists anywhere in the world today". "This includes a number of individuals connected with the United Kingdom and other European countries," he told reporters at London's Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) defence think-tank.
"They may not pose a threat to us when they first go to Syria but if they survive some may return ideologically hardened and with experience of weapons and explosives," he said. "The longer the conflict continues, the greater this danger will become, a point that should not be lost on policymakers in Russia and elsewhere," he added.
Hague urged Russia and China to back UN Security Council efforts for a negotiated solution to the conflict involving the opposition and "elements of the regime", or face the growing risk of the use of Syrian chemical or biological weapons. Syria sits in a volatile region of Middle East conflict, with neighbours including Iraq, Lebanon and Israel. At an EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels next week, Britain will urge counterparts to review an EU arms embargo on Syria, which rolls over on March 1, to allow more help for the Syrian opposition seeking Assad's ouster. Hague highlighted the potential risk from Syria in the context of a new policy framework on how to cooperate on intelligence with countries suspected of human rights abuses.