EU failure to help Syrian rebels ‘risks encouraging extremism’

Foreign Secretary William Hague had warned that extremism could flourish if opposition forces were denied support by the West.

But talks in Brussels continued into the night yesterday, with widespread opposition to the stance adopted by the UK and France, which called for restrictions to be relaxed.

The current EU sanctions expire at the end of May and if no fresh collective embargo is in place after that ends, each of the 27 members will have to decide on their own restrictions.

Austrian foreign minister Michael Spindelegger told reporters he was concerned about a failure to reach a common position and said that after the EU sanctions collapse “everybody is entitled to deliver weapons to the Assad regime or to the opposition”.

Speaking ahead of the meeting of EU foreign ministers yesterday, Mr Hague said: “There is a difference over what is appropriate now for the EU to do.

“In our view it’s important to show that we are prepared to amend our arms embargo so that the Assad regime gets a clear signal that it has to negotiate seriously.

“Therefore for us amending the embargo is part of supporting the diplomatic work to bring about the political solution.

“We also have to think about what is happening to people in Syria, how long can we go on with people having every weapon that’s ever been devised dropped on them while most of the world denies them the means to defend themselves.

“That is creating extremism, it is radicalising people. We are reaching the limit of how long we can go on with that situation.”

He said although it would be preferable for the EU to have a unified approach to the situation, individual states may have to organise their own sanctions.

Meanwhile France’s foreign minister Laurent Fabius claimed there were fresh indications that chemical weapons had been used in the conflict.

He said there were “stronger and better substantiated indications of the local use of chemical arms”.

Assad has been using extensive firepower against lightly armed rebel factions. More than 70,000 people have died since the uprising against the Assad regime erupted in March 2011.

Reza Afshar, head of the Foreign Office’s Syria team, wrote on Twitter that the EU faced a “strategic decision”.

He tweeted: “Give hope to political track on #Syria by amending arms embargo; or kill off political track.”

But doubts over rebel forces still remain, with United Nations (UN) high commissioner for human rights Navi Pillay warning that both anti-government groups and Assad’s regime are guilty of human rights violations.

She said: “Accounts gathered by our monitoring team suggest that armed groups have apparently used civilians as human shields, and that abductions are increasing.

“The accounts include allegations that certain opposition groups have forced young women and minor girls to marry combatants.

“We continue to receive reports of anti-government groups committing gruesome crimes such as torture and extrajudicial executions.”

Ms Pillay urged the UN Security Council to refer the Syrian crisis to the International Criminal Court, emphasising that war crimes committed by all parties cannot go unpunished.

Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander said yesterday: “As William Hague meets EU foreign ministers today, he should be asking both is it legal, and is it advisable to send arms to Syria’s rebels.

“How would the Government prevent British-supplied weapons falling into the wrong hands, and how does supplying weapons help to secure a lasting peace?

“Syria today is awash with arms and in the House of Commons last week MPs on all sides expressed real concern about the identity, intent and tactics of some of the rebel forces.”

Concerns over unanswered questions as regards to supplying weapons to the rebels were also raised by former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell, a member of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.

In contrast to Mr Hague, he believes the best hope for an end to the conflict was through the Russian-backed peace talks with Assad in Geneva next month.

“The unhappy truth is that the best way towards a resolution of these terrible events in Syria is through the Russians,” Sir Menzies said.