WE need to talk to ISIS - that's the message from the most senior Anglican in Sussex.

The Bishop of Chichester Rt Rev Martin Warner has told The Argus the UK and its allies need to get round the negotiating table with the terrorist group if peace is to be achieved in Syria.

But his comments have been questioned by Sussex MPs who pointed to previous attempts to reason with the group have ended in brutal violence.

Dr Warner said that any ceasefire in Syria would “go nowhere” unless talks included the extremist group responsible for mass killings and staged beheadings.

However, the county's political leaders said that engaging with the "death cult" ISIS was "potentially dangerous" and would "achieve nothing".

Earlier this month the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved moves towards a peace process for the war-torn country with proposals for a ceasefire, talks between Government and opposition leaders and a two-year timeline to elections.

Dr Warner, who became Bishop of Chichester in May 2012, said international powers should follow the example of peace talks with the IRA in Northern Ireland if a lasting peace was to be achieved.

The 57-year-old said peace talks would have to include all parties at “some future stage” including ISIS.

He said: “The talk of a ceasefire in Syria is an indication that negotiation has to be the way forward, but it will get nowhere if it does not include the extremists who would undo and progress towards peace if they were excluded from the process.

“This does not in any way condone the atrocities and crimes they have committed.”

Crawley MP Henry Smith, who last month travelled to Iraq to see the frontline against the terror group, said: “ISIL/Daesh are a death cult which has consistently carried out the most appalling abuses, such as horrific mass murder, torture, sex slave trafficking of children and women in addition to killing Christians, Yaziddies as well as Muslims.

“Efforts to reason with ISIL/Daesh have failed because peace envoys have been beheaded.

“Daesh hate us for who we are, not what we do.”

Hove MP Peter Kyle, who contentiously voted in favour of UK forces bombing Syria against the wishes of his party leader Jeremy Corbyn, said: “The fanatical behaviour of Daesh makes diplomatic engagement with them at this time not only challenging, but potentially dangerous, for negotiators but I hope their behaviour will moderate to enable this to happen soon.”

Cllr Mike Glennon, Ukip's group leader on West Sussex County Council, said: "There are two options if you are fighting an enemy, to keep fighting or get talking to them and you have got to engage with all the parties involved to reach a solution.

"My gut feeling is that we should not be involved in Syria, it will achieve nothing, and those resources would be best served protecting our own borders."

Khadijah Kamara, the mother of 19-year-old Brighton jihadist Ibrahim who was killed fighting with ISIS in Syria last year said: "ISIS make me so angry in the way they use religion to justify their evil ways.

"I don't think they are a human, I don't think they will understand negotiating, they don't listen to another way, it's their way or no way.

"But the Bishop might be right, there is nothing bad in trying and it should have been done before the bombing which should only be the last resort."

-Dr Warner included peace in Syria among his hopes in 2016.

To see the hopes of other prominent figures from across the county see pages 4 and 5.