'NO DECISION YET' ON ARMING REBELS

ABOVE: William Hague said the Government would be able to arm Syrian rebels straight away but no decision h

28th May 2013

Britain can start arming Syrian rebels straight away but currently there are no plans to do so, Foreign Secretary William Hague has said.

After European Union foreign ministers lifted the embargo on supplying arms to Syrian opposition forces, Mr Hague said there was no August deadline before weapons shipments could begin.

It was thought that no shipments could take place before August 1 when the EU Foreign Affairs Council was due to review its position on the basis of a report by EU foreign policy chief Baroness Ashton, following consultation with UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, on developments in the US-Russia peace initiative and on the engagement of the Syrian parties.

But Mr Hague has confirmed that the Government would be able to arm the rebels straight away but said no decision had been made yet.

He told Radio 4's The World At One: "I must correct one thing because I know there's been discussion of some sort of August deadline. That is not the case, there will be a discussion in the EU by August 1 but from now on... we have said we have made our own commitments that at this stage as we work for the Geneva conference we are not taking any decision to send any arms to anyone.

"But that is not related to a date of August 1, I don't want anyone to think that therefore there is any automatic decision after August 1 or that we are excluded from doing so beforehand."

Meanwhile, fears of an arms race in Syria grew after Russia revealed it had signed a contract to supply Bashar Assad's regime with sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles.

The Foreign Secretary said he was not surprised at the decision and claimed it was not related to the EU decision to lift the embargo. Mr Hague said: "I have never seen any evidence they (Russia) would change that approach so that is not surprising and I don't think it's related to the decision we have made in the European Union.

"But certainly the long-term supply of weapons to the regime from Russia and from other countries has not helped this situation. Therefore we do all have to think of the options we can pursue in the future. This decision yesterday gives us greater flexibility to respond to what is an alarming situation - the worst crisis affecting world affairs at the moment, the biggest humanitarian catastrophe in the world at the moment - and it is not something that we can simply ignore."

Downing Street stressed that no decision has yet been taken to arm the Syrian rebels. David Cameron's official spokesman said: "The Prime Minister's view is that it is right that we have the flexibility to respond if the regime refused to negotiate. What we are doing is sending a signal, loud and clear, to the regime."