BERLIN, Sept 11 The foreign ministers of Germany
and Britain said on Thursday they would not be taking part in
air strikes in Syria against the Islamic State militant group.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told a news
conference in Berlin that Germany has not been asked to take
part in the air strikes and would not be participating. "To
quite clear, we have not been asked to do so and neither will we
do so," Steinmeier said.
His British counterpart Philip Hammond said Britain
"supports entirely the U.S. approach of developing an
international coalition" against the Islamic State, whom he
described as "barbaric", and said that in terms of how to help
such a coalition "we have ruled nothing out".
But, asked by Reuters after his meeting with Steinmeier
about President Barrack Obama's proposal for air strikes against
IS in Syria, Hammond replied: "Let me be clear: Britain will
not be taking part in any air strikes in Syria. We have already
had that discussion in our parliament last year and we won't be
revisiting that position."
He said the legal environment and "military permissiveness"
in Syria and Iraq were very different.
(Reporting by Stephen Brown; writing by Erik Kirschbaum)
