YEMEN Press Agency

British army chief: Russian army represents major threat to Britain than ISIS

SANAA, Nov. 24 (YPA) – British army chief of the General Staff, Gen Mark Carleton-Smith, said that Russia’s threat to his country is greater than of terrorist organizations such as ISIS and al-Qaeda.

“There is no doubt that Russia today poses a much more serious threat to our national security than to the threat of Islamist extremists such as al-Qaeda and ISIL,” Smith told The Telegraph on Friday.

He indicated that ISIS’s threat had been reduced after the “geographical dimension of the alleged caliphate” had been destroyed, and Britain and its allies had to focus on the Russian threat.

“Russia has made systematic attempts to find and exploit the vulnerabilities of the West,” he said, adding that “we cannot overlook the danger that Russia represents.”

“The conventional military response” to Russia should be “to support the capabilities of NATO countries and their unity,” he said.

E.M