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Syria-Lebanon-Iran | |||
EU spikes plea to arm rebels | |||
2013-02-20 | |||
BRUSSELS — European Union foreign ministers announced on Monday that they were keeping current sanctions against Syria in place for three months, rejecting attempts to alter an embargo on the country so that arms could be funneled to rebels fighting President Bashar Assad. However, in an apparent nod to the UK, which had argued that the rebels should be exempted from the embargo, the ministers adopted a non-specific amendment “so as to provide greater non-lethal support and technical assistance for the protection of civilians.”
“Most states were opposed to any amendment of the embargo and today we have amended it in a very important way, in a couple of very important ways,” Hague said. He added that further amendments could be made three months from now, an indication that Britain might continue its push to arm the rebels. “We will have to have that debate at the time, and I think that will depend on whether any political progress is now made in Syria and depend on the continued loss of life which continues on an appalling and unacceptable scale,” Hague said. Several EU foreign ministers said, in strong terms, that they opposed sending any more arms into the ravaged country. That view was supported on Monday by a new report by a UN-appointed panel that said Syria’s civil war is becoming increasingly sectarian and the behavior of both sides is growing more and more radicalised. The report urged the international community to curb the supply of weapons and anti-government forces to part with foreign fighters.
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Posted by:Steve White |