MOSCOW (Sputnik), Alexander Mosesov — The recent UK drone strike against two British nationals fighting for ISIL was used as a pretext for UK actions against Syrian government forces, the head of the Bruges Group think tank told Sputnik on Thursday.
"The recent drone strikes were against people who had British citizenship, have been fighting alongside the Islamic State, these were extremists, fanatics… Eliminating them in my opinion is legitimate, however, of course, it is being used as a pretext to further involve and direct British forces against [Syrian] President [Bashar] Assad," Robert Oulds said.
Oulds, who is also a Conservative Party member, added that such UK involvement would "create massive problems." According to him, the only two real powers fighting ISIL on the Syrian territory were Kurdish fighters and Assad's forces.
On Tuesday, UK Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said London would be ready to carry out further airstrikes against ISIL in Syria should it learn that the group poses a potential threat to the United Kingdom.
The August strike came despite the UK House of Commons' refusal to authorize Cameron’s previous request, made in August 2013, to carry out airstrikes against ISIL targets in Syria.
