Russia had sent troops into Syria to bolster Assad
because the president was on the brink of falling, Cameron suggested.
He acknowledged that it was a fair criticism to say the efforts of
Britain, the US and other countries to train moderate rebels had been a
military failure.
The prime minister said: “We did work to train moderate opposition forces. We haven’t trained enough, they haven’t been successful enough and they haven’t been a big enough presence.”
Cameron later repeated his earlier contention that Assad should ultimately face international justice for war crimes. He said: “He has done appalling things, massacred hundreds of thousands of his own citizens, millions have fled. In my view, he has broken international law and he has to go.”
The prime minister gave the lengthy CBS interview before heading to a UN event about the coalition against Isis, where he told world leaders that the key to defeating the group was to tackle extremist ideology at its roots.
Echoing his previous speeches on extremism, he said freedom of speech did not mean “freedom to hate” and the world needed to deal with “poisonous” ideology of Islamist extremism in schools, prisons and universities.
Cameron is now heading to Jamaica and Grenada on a trade trip, leaving the foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, to give the UK’s main address to the UN general assembly in his place.
Putin has already gone home after attending the assembly for the first time in a decade.
The prime minister said: “We did work to train moderate opposition forces. We haven’t trained enough, they haven’t been successful enough and they haven’t been a big enough presence.”
Cameron later repeated his earlier contention that Assad should ultimately face international justice for war crimes. He said: “He has done appalling things, massacred hundreds of thousands of his own citizens, millions have fled. In my view, he has broken international law and he has to go.”
The prime minister gave the lengthy CBS interview before heading to a UN event about the coalition against Isis, where he told world leaders that the key to defeating the group was to tackle extremist ideology at its roots.
Echoing his previous speeches on extremism, he said freedom of speech did not mean “freedom to hate” and the world needed to deal with “poisonous” ideology of Islamist extremism in schools, prisons and universities.
Cameron is now heading to Jamaica and Grenada on a trade trip, leaving the foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, to give the UK’s main address to the UN general assembly in his place.
Putin has already gone home after attending the assembly for the first time in a decade.
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