General Sir David Richards says Cameron aim of dealing with ISIS and getting rid of president at same time ‘not plausible’

David Cameron should abandon his “contradictory war aims” and accept that President Bashar al-Assad must remain in power to allow his army to take the lead in defeating ISIS forces in Syria, former chief of the defence staff Gen David Richards has said.

As the prime minister prepares the ground for a Commons vote on extending RAF airstrikes against ISIS forces from Iraq to Syria, Richards called for Britain and other allied nations to broker a deal with Russia that would pave the way for Assad’s forces to lead the charge against ISIS on the ground.

In an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Wednesday, he said: “At the moment we’ve got contradictory war aims. We want to deal with ISIS but we also want to get rid of Assad at the same time. I personally don’t think that’s plausible. Any general will tell you you need to have unity of purpose and clear aims in a war. That muddies those aims.”

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