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Britain may step up aid to Syrian rebels

Britain could widen the scale of its security support for the Syrian rebels, William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said on Monday despite failing to scrap a European Union arms embargo at talks in Brussels.

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Britain could widen the scale of its security support for the Syrian rebels, William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said on Monday despite failing to scrap a European Union arms embargo at talks in Brussels.

The EU approved Whitehall plans to send "security and civilian-military" trainers to assist Syrian rebels.

The decision followed a battle yesterday between Hague and Baroness Ashton, the EU foreign affairs chief, at a meeting of European foreign ministers over a British call to lift EU sanctions that prevent any form of military support to the rebels.

Following opposition to lifting the arms embargo - from Germany, Sweden and more than 20 other countries - Hague hailed a compromise amending EU sanctions to allow "technical assistance for the protection of civilians" as a breakthrough.

"It is important because it shows that we can change the arms embargo and the worse the situation becomes the more we can change," he said. "It allows us to supply a greater range of equipment to protect civilian life in Syria. It also enables us to give assistance and advice that we've been restricted in giving before. We would have gone further, many nations would have made no amendment at all. This is a compromise."

Government sources told The Daily Telegraph that, over the coming days and weeks, Britain would announce "advice and training" for Syria's national rebel coalition, including "maintenance of security in areas no longer held by the regime, planning now for security sector reform in a transition" and "civilian-military relations" within the opposition.

"We will certainly use the full leeway provided by this amendment to the embargo in order to provide greater assistance," said Hague.

Other European diplomats played down the decision. "We fiddled with the words to make the British happy, nothing has changed," said one.

The easing of sanctions followed a row between Britain, which had support only from France and Italy, and the EU foreign service, which warned that arming the rebels was illegal and could fuel Islamist extremism and destabilise the region.

The Syrian government and rebel fighters committed war crimes, but the "intensity and scale" of the atrocities was larger on the side of the regime, according to a report yesterday by a commission of inquiry set up by the United Nations.

The report, which comprises hundreds of interviews conducted over six months, documents indiscriminate shelling, air strikes on civilian centres, and extra-judicial killings in a conflict that has cost almost 70,000 lives. Carla del Ponte, a former UN prosescutor and a member of the commission, said the International Criminal Court should be called in to investigate.


 

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