In a letter to Members of Parliament (MPs), foreign secretary William Hague claimed that British nationals or residents who have flocked to Syria to join al-Qaeda insurgents there pose a direct threat to Britain upon return.
 

“This is particularly concerning as we assess some of the individuals being trained will seek to carry out attacks against Western interests in the region or in Western states now or in the future,” he wrote in response to a question on how the Syria conflict posed a threat to British security.
 

Richard Ottaway, the Conservative chairman of the Commons foreign affairs select committee, said he believed the letter showed Hague would declare that Britain was ready to intervene in Syria’s civil war militarily.
 

“I think Mr Hague will take a decision and he is going to tell Parliament that is what we are doing”, Ottaway added.
 

This means that the foreign secretary is preparing the ground to tell the British public in a future time that Syria was an existential threat and that the UK should send troops to ward off that threat.
 

The same scenario was carried out in Iraq, when then Prime Minister Tony Blair told MPs in 2003 that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) which could be fired towards Britain in 45-minute time. By lying to the public, Tony Blair obtained the green light to join U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, but the claim later turned out to be false, ridiculous assessment of the situation on the ground.
 

Security experts said the assessment meant Syria was on a par with Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen as a source of al-Qaeda related plots targeting Britain.
 

British officials have estimated that more than 100 British nationals or residents have gone to Syria to take part in the civil war.
 

Britain and France have been pushing for the EU to lift its embargo on arms sales so that allies can arm the terrorists fighting popular government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with sophisticated weaponry.