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London, Paris arming rebels is the ‘right step’: Syrian opposition
Syria’s main opposition group, the National Coalition, welcomed an announcement by France on Thursday that it and Britain were ready to arm rebels fighting to oust the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
“We consider it a step in the right direction… Assad will not accept a political solution [to the conflict] until he realizes he is faced with an [armed] force that will defeat him,” Coalition spokesman Walid al-Bunni told AFP.
France and Britain said they were prepared to arm Syrian rebels even without unanimous EU support, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Thursday.
Paris and London will call for moving up the date of the next European Union meeting on the Syrian arms embargo, and will decide to arm the rebels if the EU does not give unanimous agreement, he said previously.
The UK has been pushing for this alongside France.
“We’ve just amended [the arms embargo] so we can supply non-lethal equipment. I hope we can persuade our European partners, if and when a further change becomes necessary, they’ll agree with us. But if we can’t then it’s not out of the question that we might have to do things in our own way. It’s possible” said British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday.
Cameron made his remarks after being asked by the chairman of the common’s foreign affairs select committee whether he was prepared to veto the EU arms embargo when it’s reviewed in May.
Meanwhile, France’s foreign minister on Wednesday also called for lifting the EU arms embargo.
More: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/2013/03/…pport.html
2013-03-14 08:49:20
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