(MENAFN- Gulf Times) British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has said that his country is committed to ensuring the security of the Gulf and supporting the GCC countries.
Speaking to Qatar News Agency (QNA), Hammond stressed his country's full commitment to the security strategy for the Gulf region which will crystallise in the next few months.
At the end of his visit to Doha on Thursday, Hammond said the situation in Syria, the Russian military intervention and the current talks in Vienna were the core issues discussed in his meeting with HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani on Thursday.
He said he had briefed the Emir on the preparations for the Vienna talks and ideas put forward for discussion and the possibility of convincing Iran to change its position in order to reach an agreement to end the Syrian crisis .
The foreign secretary said he also reviewed with the Emir the situation in Yemen, stressing that Qatar and the United Kingdom shared concern about the deterioration of the humanitarian situation there.
He said the meeting also tackled the political process in Libya, which had reached a point he described as "disappointing ", adding that the political agreement had become very complicated.
On the outcome of his talks with Saudi officials, Hammond said there were strong relations between his country and Saudi Arabia in all fields.
He said he had met King Salman and reviewed with him the overall strategic issues in the region, bilateral relations and the regional situation.
On the current situation in Syria after the Russian military intervention, Hammond said a catastrophic situation still prevailed in the country, "where civilians are suffering and most of them are forced to flee the country, thus exacerbating the refugee crisis that we are trying to address".
Hammond said 85% of Russian air attacks were targeting the Islamic State group and this could not be denied by Russia.
With regard to the ability of the moderate Syrian opposition to fill the political vacuum in Syria, the foreign secretary said Bashar al-Assad must go and the moderate opposition would not have any agreement with him.
He said the opposition at the moment was fighting IS and the Syrian regime, and "what we must do is to ensure a political solution to end this war and double efforts of all the forces to eliminate Daesh (Islamic State), but in order to reach this point we have to reach a political agreement to pave the way for a transitional stage in Syria, away from Bashar al-Assad's regime."
On the situation in Iraq and the possibility of Russian action there, Hammond said he did not expect a Russian intervention in Iraq "as it will be futile because the coalition forces are waging effective air raids and are not in need of additional support".
He ruled out any Russian intention to deploy land forces in Iraq, praising in this regard Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's statement that he will not allow the spread of outside forces in the struggle against Islamic State.
"Our position is clear: If the Russians are ready to work with us and with the other parties in the fight against Daesh, they are welcome provided that the war would only be against Daesh and would not be a cover for another purpose such as they are doing in Syria where they claim to be fighting Daesh but actually are protecting Assad".
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