John Cantlie: British hostage appears in new Isis video warning the West is heading towards 'Third Gulf War'

Mr Cantlie appeared to be reading from a script during the seven-and-a-half minutes of footage

John Cantlie, a freelance journalist, was kidnapped by Isis in November 2012 (AFP)

A video message read by John Cantlie, the British journalist held hostage by Isis in Syria, has warned that the West is heading towards a “Third Gulf War”.

Mr Cantlie, who has been a prisoner for nearly two years, talked for about seven-and-a-half minutes in what was billed as the fourth of eight “episodes” of a series called Lend Me Your Ears. He appeared to be reading from a script.

The remarks warned that the West appeared to be contemplating a “Third Gulf War” because of the “meteoric” rise of Isis, also known as Islamic State.

Mr Cantlie quoted US President Barak Obama as saying the campaign against the militants would be a “long-term project” that would require a “broad international coalition”.

“Well, well, blow me down, if that’s not exactly the same rhetoric used to rally support for the war in Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq in 2003,” said Mr Cantlie, who was dressed in an orange suit in an echo of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

“The public are ambivalent at best. Our economies have taken such a pounding that normal people are struggling just to keep their heads above water and another complex geopolitical war, in a faraway country that does not concern them, is of little interest.”

He talked about Mr Obama’s argument that the West should intervene in the region because of Isis’s attacks on the Yazidi ethnic minority in Iraq.

“Since when has America cared about the fate of a minority in Muslim lands?” he said. “Modern history is, sadly, littered with examples of religious minorities being crushed and neither the US nor anyone else said a thing.”

Mr Cantlie, a freelance journalist from Haslemere in Surry, was kidnapped by Isis in November 2012.