A senior member of the Scottish National Party (SNP) has stressed on a UN mandate as a condition for his party to support the UK’s military action in Syria.

The SNP's foreign affairs spokesman Alex Salmond said though government has not yet made a convincing case for joining the military action against ISIL terrorists but the role of the UN will be important since it is regarded as the voice of the international community.

"We haven't heard in the SNP benches anything yet that would convince us that being the thirteenth country to start bombing in Syria is going to make any material difference whatsoever to anything”, Salmond told BBC.

"What we'd like to hear is far, far more about diplomatic initiatives through the United Nations and also the real practical things like interrupting the financial flows into Daesh to actually make a material difference to what's happening in the Middle East," he said.

The remarks came after SNP’s leader Nicola Sturgeon said she is prepared to listen to Prime Minister David Cameron on the issue. That despite the party unanimously opposed the UK’s military action during a conference in Aberdeen last month.

"I'm not yet convinced the case for air strikes has been made. That is not to say I will not listen to the case that Cameron will make”, she explained.

The issue of military intervention in Syria is gaining momentum in the UK following the last week’s Paris attacks. The SNP has 55 MPs in the House of Commons and there support could be crucial if the government holds a fresh vote on the Syria airstrikes.

Speaking in the Commons on Wednesday, Cameron made it clear that he believed the UK could take military action without the explicit authority of the United Nations Security Council.

The prime minister stressed that while a UN Security Council resolution would be welcome, he believed it was not necessary and he would not "outsource to Russian veto" decisions about Britain's safety.