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Russia warns UK on arming Syria militants

Iran Press TV

Wed Mar 13, 2013 7:40PM GMT

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned Britain on arming militants fighting against the Syrian government, saying that any attempts to supply weapons to the foreign-backed insurgents in the Arab country is a breach of international law.

Following talks in London with British Foreign Secretary William Hague and Defence Secretary Philip Hammond, Larvov made clear that Moscow would oppose any attempts to arm insurgents in Syria as they would contravene international laws.

“As for the possibility of arming the opposition, as far as i understand, it is not allowed by international law, that's why arming of the opposition directly or indirectly will be the violation of the international law,” Lavrov told journalists at a press conference at Lancaster House.

Referring to Libya crisis, Lavrov said the anti-government forces received arms despite the UN Security Council’s embargo on supplying arms to either side of the conflict, describing the move by European countries as a violation of international law.

Hague, however, claimed that Britain’s assistance to the militants in Syria was largely made up of a humanitarian nature and was clearly stated to the international community.

Saying that there should be no preconditions for dialogue in Syria, Lavrov said, “The Geneva Communiqué doesn’t have any preconditions, such as the removal President Assad from power, and those who say this is necessary in order to start a political process put this geopolitical goal first, before the goal of stopping the violence.”

This comes as The Daily Star reported on Sunday quoting from an informed source at Whitehall that Britain has dispatched a secret £20 million arsenal of weapons including assault rifles, light machine guns, grenades, anti-tank missiles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and ­ammunition to militants fighting inside Syria.

The Syrian crisis began in March 2011, and many people, including large numbers of army and security personnel, have been killed.

Damascus says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the armed militants are foreign nationals.

MOS/JR/HE