EU rejects Franco-British push to arm Syrian rebels
Worldwide, Daily news | ankakh | March 16, 2013 14:46European Union governments on Friday rejected Franco-British efforts to lift an EU arms embargo to allow weapons supplies to Syrian rebels, saying this could spark an arms race and worsen regional instability.
France and Britain found little support for their proposal at an EU summit in Brussels, diplomats said, but EU foreign ministers will consider the issue again next week.
French President Francois Hollande, backed by British Prime Minister David Cameron, pressed for the embargo to be lifted, saying Europe could not allow the Syrian people to be massacred.
Western nations mostly have stood on the sidelines as 70,000 Syrians have been killed, according to a U.N. estimate, during a two-year-old revolt against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a leading opponent of lifting the arms embargo, said there was a danger that Assad’s allies Russia and Iran could step up arms supplies to his government if the 27-nation EU lifted its restrictions.
Just because Britain and France now wanted to drop the ban, that didn’t mean 25 other states must follow suit, she told a news conference in Brussels. “That will not be the case.”
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