France: Is it time to arm Syria's rebels?
Two days after recognizing new Syrian opposition group, France said it would float giving rebels defensive weapons. But even with the French push, such arms shipments look far from imminent.
Two days after recognizing new Syrian opposition group, France said it would float giving rebels defensive weapons. But even with the French push, such arms shipments look far from imminent.
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Just two days after becoming the first nation to recognize Syria's new opposition group, the French government has said it will begin discussions with its partners in Europe to end the European Union's embargo against arming the rebels. But while France appears willing to step up its involvement in the Syrian civil war, its Western allies, including the United States, still seem cool to the idea.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told Europe's RTL radio today that while France is wary of escalating the Syrian conflict, it does not want rebel-controlled regions to fall for lack of self-defense, reports Agence France-Presse.
Mr. Fabius's comments come amid a strong showing of support from France for the Syrian rebels. France announced Tuesday that it would recognize the new Syrian opposition group 鈥� formed over the weekend to unite the disparate rebel and exile groups under a single organization 鈥� as the Syrian people's sole representative. And French President Fran莽ois Hollande, who like Mr. Fabius also said recently that the question of arming the rebels would now "have to be necessarily reviewed," is set to meet with the group's leader, Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, in Paris on Saturday, according to a second AFP report.
But even with the French push, arms shipments to the rebels look far from imminent.聽 The Wall Street Journal reports that an EU diplomat speaking anonymously said that while France would likely bring up the arms embargo during a EU foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels on Monday, a European consensus on lifting the ban is a long way off.
The US also remains disinclined to arm the rebels, in large part due to fears that weapons could end up in the hands of jihadists 鈥� a situation that the US faced in the 1980s, when it armed Afghan militants who went on to form Al Qaeda and the Taliban, reports the Los Angeles Times.