PARIS: French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Thursday that France and Britain are ready to deliver weapons to Syria’s rebels even if EU does not give unanimous support.
Fabius said that both the countries will call for moving up the date of the next European Union meeting on the Syria arms embargo, and could decide to arm the rebels if the EU does not give unanimous agreement.
“We must go further and allow the Syrian people to defend themselves against this bloody regime. It’s our duty to help the Coalition, its leaders and the Free Syrian army by all means possible,” he wrote.
“We must convince our partners, particularly in Europe, that we no longer have any other choice than to lift the embargo on arms to benefit the Coalition,” Fabius wrote in the article, timed to mark the conflict reaching two years.
Fabius said that if unanimous EU support for lifting the measure is lacking, the French and British governments will decide to deliver weapons.
The next 27-member bloc meeting to study the embargo is planned for the end of May, but Fabius said Paris and London want to have the meeting earlier.
“We must move quickly,” and “and we along with the British will ask for the meeting to be moved up,” Fabius said, not ruling out a gathering before the end of March.
On Tuesday, UK Prime Minister David Cameron said that Britain would consider ignoring an EU arms ban and supplying weapons to Syrian rebels if it would help topple President Bashar al-Assad.
The EU last month amended its embargo to allow member nations to supply “non-lethal” equipment and training to the Syrian opposition but stopped short of lifting the embargo entirely.
DND
