British opposition leader calls for ‘back channel’ to Islamic State, invites Trump to visit London mosque
British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn says there should be a communications channel created with the Islamic State group in hopes of ending the war in Syria.
The Labour leader told the BBC on Sunday that a back channel – similar to the one created with the Irish Republican Army during the decades-long conflict in Northern Ireland – should be established.
Corbyn says “There has to be a route through somewhere,” particularly given that some IS commanders are former officers in the Iraqi Army.
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He says “there has to be some understanding of where their strong points are, where their weak points are”.
Corbyn also reiterated his long-standing opposition to Britain’s Trident nuclear deterrent and suggested that submarines could be deployed without nuclear warheads on them.
Speaking on The Andrew Marr Show, Corbyn invited US Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, who sparked an outcry by calling for a ban on Muslims from entering the US, to join him on a visit to a London mosque.
The comments from opposition leader, a socialist who represents a multi-ethnic district of north London, come a day before the British parliament debates a motion calling for a ban on half-Scottish Trump from visiting the country.
“I decided to invite Donald Trump on his visit to Britain to come with me to my constituency because he has problems with Mexicans and he has problems with Muslims,” Corbyn said.
“As you know my wife is Mexican and my constituency is very, very multi-cultural so what I was going to do was go down to the mosque with him and let him talk to people there,” he said.
The billionaire front runners for the Republican presidential nomination called for a ban on Muslims entering the US following a shooting spree by two Muslims who the FBI said had been radicalised. He has also made xenophobic comments about Latinos.
British lawmakers are due to debate on Monday a petition signed by more than half a million people calling for Trump to be barred from Britain, although the debate will not be followed by a vote.
Trump has threatened to cancel over £700 million (US$1billion) of investments in golf courses in Scotland if Britain slaps him with a travel ban.
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He has also been involved in a spat with the Scottish government over plans they approved for an offshore wind farm project near one of his golf courses, calling former first minister Alec Salmond “an embarrassment to Scotland”.
On Sunday, Salmond, who sits as a lawmaker in the British parliament, told the BBC he is likely to support barring Trump from the country.
“He wants to ban all Muslims from the United States. I want to ban all Donald Trumps from Scotland,” he said.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
