I'd be interested to understand what the negotiating team would try to do. The object of any negotiation is to reach a compromise and common understanding. Would Owen Smith and his team of suits enter a room with the leaders of IS and have a seminar with nice sandwiches and bottled water? They'd have a flip chart and a mediator and they'd give each other some positive vibes every now and then?
No of course not. IS/ISIL/daesh is not an organisation in that sense - it's an ideology. How does a group of people sat in a room influence an ideology? It's like expecting to get into a room with Hitler and negotiating away Nazi-ism over night. Neo-nazism unfortunately still lives on.
And to clear up any misunderstanding when I say daesh is an ideology not an organisation I do NOT in any way equate Islam, Muslims or your local corner shop proprietor with this ideology. The two are completely separate things. I refer to extremism that drives the "few" people of the organisation not the millions/billions of peaceful Muslims on the planet.
In other words, Owen Smith is p155ing into the wind and has shown himself to be a bit of a looser against Corbyn. Which really takes some doing.
Nozzle