London: A top British general has said that the UK could intervene militarily in Syria in the next few months.
General Sir David Richards said there were contingency plans in place for a “very limited” response in the case of a worsening humanitarian situation in Syria.
During an interview with the BBC One, Richards, the Chief of the Defence Staff, suggested that Britain could intervene militarily this winter when desert temperatures fall and lives are put at risk.
“The humanitarian situation this winter I think will deteriorate and that may well provoke calls to intervene in a limited way,” the Telegraph quoted him, as saying.
“But no, there’s no ultimately military reason why one shouldn’t and I know that all these options are, quite rightly, being examined. It’s not impossible and obviously we develop contingency plans to look at all these things,” he said.
According to the paper, Richards added that “the main thing” Britain was focusing on was to ensure that the crisis does not “spill over into countries like Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey”.
The admission is the most serious warning yet that Britain is preparing for some sort of military involvement in the country, the paper said.
In the past week, British policy has moved from laying out plans to help organise the disparate rebel groups to discussing intervention, it added.
ANI
