UK PM To NATO Leaders - Halt Ransom Payments To Terrorists

Prime Minister David Cameron has said Britain must 'use everything we have in our armoury' to squeeze the Islamic State terror group out of existence

The Press Association reports that UK PM David Cameron will tonight warn fellow NATO leaders that they must halt ransom payments to terrorist kidnappers.

GRAPHITTI NEWS had earlier reported how Europe was funding terror and underwriting the Jihad.

Funds flow for Ransom Payments

At a dinner for alliance leaders at the NATO summit in Wales, the Prime Minister will remind them of commitments they have made at the G8 to stop such payments.

He will warn that they simply fuel further terrorist violence, putting their own populations at risk.

"It is utterly self-defeating. It is worse than self-defeating, it is acutally a risk to us back at home," said Mr Cameron.

Mr Cameron's warning comes as a British hostage thought to be held by Islamic State terrorists is facing the threat of death at the hands of the extremists.

But while the UK Government has always said that it will not pay ransoms for British nationals, hostages from other countries - such as France and Italy - have been released after large sums were reportedly paid out.

The Prime Minister made clear that he intended to confront leaders who had signed up to the statement on ransom payments at last year's G8 summit at Lough Erne in Northern Ireland and challenge them to honour their commitments.

"I will be reiterating those words tonight making sure that all those people who signed these declarations know that what matters is not your signature on a declaration but not letting money be paid to terrorist kidnappers because that money goes into arms, it goes into weapons, it goes into terror plots, it goes into more kidnaps," he told reporters ahead of the dinner.

David Cameron, left, and Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen talk on the eve of the Nato Summit

While Mr Cameron has made clear that he does not rule out Britain joining US air strikes against the IS extremists, he appeared to indicate that action was not imminent.

"I think sometimes people think that there is no strategy unless it simply consists of air strikes. That is not the case. What it needs is a fully-formed strategy to squeeze this from every angle. That is what you are getting from this conference," he said.

Earlier Government sources said that in a one-to-one meeting with US President Barack Obama - who has seen two US journalists beheaded by IS militants - the two leaders had discussed "broad strategy" for dealing with the terrorist threat rather than specific action.

Mr Cameron said ministers were now "actively" considering whether to supply arms to the Kurdish peshmerga militias fighting IS in northern Iraq or to provide them with military training.

So far Britain has only supplied non-lethal equipment - such as helmets and body armour - although RAF transport planes have flown in ammunition supplied from Albania for the Kurds Soviet-era weaponry.

Downing Street said that Lieutenant General Sir Simon Mayall, the Government's senior defence adviser in the Middle East, has been in discussions with leaders of the Kurdish administration in Irbil as to how best the UK could assist.

Mr Cameron however stressed the need to co-ordinate with the Iraqi central government authorities in Baghdad.

"The most important thing we need is a government in Baghdad that represents all of the Iraqi people," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

"We must make sure that the help we give is in concert with those on the ground rather than ignoring that they are there or going over their heads."

The Prime Minister's official spokesman pointed out that Iraqi prime minister designate Haider al-Abadi had indicated that he hoped to be able to form a government by around September 11.

Air Force One carrying President Barrack Obama touches down at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire as he arrives for NATO Summit

The Prime Minister made clear that he was not ruling out air strikes and even left the door open to attacking IS in Syria, without the approval of President Bashar Assad.

"I don't think it's that complicated because obviously the Iraqi government is a legitimate government ... whereas President Assad has committed war crimes on his own people and is therefore illegitimate," he said.

"My view is that President Assad is part of the problem, rather than part of the solution.

"We have got to understand that Assad has been part of the creation of IS, rather than part of its answer."

Labour leader Ed Miliband said he "would look at the merits" of any British strike the Government put forward.

He told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme: "It's a threat which can't be ignored, I think it's very, very important that we don't just turn away from it and say 'it's too big a problem'.