Violence could 'spread across Middle East'

Lord Malloch-Brown, former deputy to Kofi Annan at the UN, says, with the conflict in Syria intensifying, there is a real risk of "conflagration across the [Middle East]" with the prospect of the region "descending potentially into violence".

"It will not be limited to the tragic loss of lives inside Syria," he told the Today programme, and said "this is as about as bad a regional hotspot as there is anywhere in the world at the moment".