UK prepared to supply arms to militants in Syria: Official
Iran Press TV
Sat Jun 1, 2013 4:33PM GMT
A senior British diplomat has said that the UK could be in a position to supply weapons to militants fighting against the Syrian government in a few months if planned peace talks fail to make progress.
The official said that the British government is ready to ship arms to foreign-backed militants this summer if the second international conference in Geneva set for June fails to bring about an end to the crisis in Syria, The Financial Times reported on Friday.
"The precise timing has not yet been finalized and no decision has yet been taken. But we are likely to be ... shipping arms to the rebels by August," the official said.
On May 27, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said that European Union (EU) foreign ministers meeting in Brussels have reached an agreement to lift the arms embargo on militants in Syria, while maintaining other sanctions on the country.
However, Britain's Foreign Office later claimed that the UK had 'no immediate' plans to provide weapons to the militants fighting inside Syria against President Bashar al-Assad.
The first Geneva talks, which were presided over by former UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan in June 2012, called for a political process to end the crisis in Syria.
Syria has been gripped by a deadly unrest since March 2011, and many people, including large numbers of government security personnel, have been killed in the foreign-sponsored militancy.
Damascus says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.
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