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European Nations End Weapons Embargo, Creating Path to Arming Syrian Rebels
(about 5 hours later)
BRUSSELS — European Union foreign ministers were deadlocked on Monday over whether to allow member countries to send lethal aid to the Syrian opposition.
BRUSSELS — European Union foreign ministers on Monday allowed the arms embargo on Syria to lapse, opening the way for member nations to provide lethal aid to rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad if they chose.
The ministers’ meeting in Brussels exposed deep rifts, with Britain pressing hardest for the union to amend its embargo and allow weapon shipments to forces fighting President Bashar al-Assad and his troops, who have gained ground recently against the rebellion.
“While we have no immediate plans to send arms to Syria, it gives us the flexibility to respond in the future if the situation continues to deteriorate and worsen,” William Hague, the British foreign secretary, said after more than 12 hours of stormy talks.
As the meeting continued into Monday evening, Britain faced resistance from Austria, the Czech Republic and Sweden, which strongly oppose weapons shipments that they say could preclude a diplomatic solution and prolong the bloodshed.
The ministers agreed to renew all the economic sanctions already in place against the Syrian government.
France supported Britain’s position, but called for a wider consensus.
But the efforts led by the British to ease the arms embargo exposed deep rifts over whether to allow member countries to send lethal aid to the Syrian opposition, while Secretary of State John Kerry met with his Russian counterpart to continue to try to organize peace talks in Geneva next month.
“It’s very important that Europe takes a unified position,” Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, told reporters as he left for Paris to attend another meeting on Syria, this one with the American secretary of state, John Kerry, and Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister.
Austria, the Czech Republic and Sweden came to the meeting strongly opposing weapons shipments. They distrust large parts of the Syrian opposition and said they feared the weapons would end up in the hands of jihadist groups.
“The unfortunate spectacle of division,” Mr. Fabius said, would “reduce our leverage in future negotiations” with the warring parties in Syria.
They also said funneling arms to the opposition now would undermine the chances of a deal with Mr. Assad before the planned peace conference in Geneva. Ministers said that it was now up to each member state to decide for itself whether to export weapons to the opposition, because they decided to separate the arms-export issue from the other sanctions.
Mr. Fabius said there were “growing suspicions” of “localized” chemical weapons use in Syria. He said the evidence needed “very detailed verification,'’ adding: “We are consulting with our partners to examine what specific consequences to draw.”
In a sign of the tensions, the Austrian foreign minister, Michael Spindelegger, held an impromptu news conference late Monday warning that the end of the embargo risked creating a situation where “everybody is entitled to deliver weapons to the Assad regime or to the opposition.”
Mr. Fabius was speaking after the French newspaper Le Monde reported that the Syrian government had used canisters of some form of toxic gas against rebel forces in the Damascus suburb of Jobar.
France supported Britain’s position, but had called for a wider consensus.
The failure among European Union nations on Monday to agree on a unified position on weapons shipments means an end to the current sanctions regime. But ministers emphasized that economic sanctions like asset freezes and travel bans on Syrian officials could continue.
Those sanctions were set to expire this weekend, and such a lapse would have been a serious embarrassment for the bloc.
“I’m glad at the end of the day we were able to have a sanctions regime for all the other sanctions that were in place,” Frans Timmermans, the Dutch foreign minister, said after the meeting.
Mr. Timmermans said none of the union’s member nations, including his own, intended to ship arms to the Syrian opposition. But he acknowledged that lifting the arms embargo could lead Russia to step up its arms shipments to the Assad government.
“The only effect you could have — let’s be realistic about this — is that it will stimulate the Russians to provide even more arms,” Mr. Timmermans said. “But they’ve been providing so many arms that I’m sure even more will not make much of a difference,” he said, referring to the Russians.
In a declaration, the European Union said member states like Britain that wished to export weapons to Syria “shall assess the export license applications on a case-by-case basis” in line with common organization’s rules on exports of military technology and equipment.
And with new concerns being raised about whether Syrian military forces were using chemical weapons, and intense fighting continuing in the embattled city of Qusayr, the United Nations top human rights official blamed all parties in the conflict for “flagrant disregard of international law and human life.”
“Appalling violations of the most basic human rights are occurring in Syria,” said the official, Navi Pillay, the high commissioner for human rights, speaking in Geneva at the opening session of the Human Rights Council.
Invoking the responsibility of governments to protect the civilians of other countries from war crimes, Ms. Pillay said, “I fear that we in the international community are failing to meet our fundamental obligations to the victims.”
On Monday, Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, said there were “growing suspicions” of “localized” chemical weapons use in Syria, but that the evidence needed “very detailed verification.”
He spoke after Le Monde, the French newspaper, reported that the Syrian government had used canisters of some form of toxic gas against rebel forces in the Damascus suburb of Jobar.
Le Monde said it had placed two journalists with the rebels for two months, and that a photographer working for the paper “suffered blurred vision and respiratory difficulties for four days” after inhaling a gas on April 13.
Le Monde said it had placed two journalists with the rebels for two months, and that a photographer working for the paper “suffered blurred vision and respiratory difficulties for four days” after inhaling a gas on April 13.
Correspondent Jean-Philippe Rémy reported that the gas canisters opened with a “click,'’ not an explosion, and emitted an agent that was colorless and invisible. He wrote that the use of the gas was not uncommon in small areas that were the sites of intense fights.
In his Le Monde article about the gas canisters, Jean-Philippe Rémy, reported that they opened with a “click,” and emitted an agent that was colorless and invisible. He wrote that the use of the gas was not uncommon in small areas that were the sites of intense fights, and quoted a Syrian doctor as saying that in some cases, if those exposed do not receive “immediate emergency treatment, death ensues.”
He quoted a Syrian doctor, “Dr. Hassan O.,” who described the symptoms. “The people who arrive have trouble breathing,” he said. “Their pupils are constricted. Some are vomiting. They’ve lost their hearing, they cannot speak, their respiratory muscles have been inert. If we don’t give them immediate emergency treatment, death ensues.'’
Mr. Assad has dismissed accusations that his forces have used chemical weapons, but his government has accused the rebels of deploying such weapons.
The paper gave no details on what the gas might have been, and said some of the rebels were using gas masks.
His government continues to receive arms from Iran and Russia, and fighters from Iran and Hezbollah.
Mr. Assad, in an interview with the Clarín newspaper of Argentina, dismissed accusations by the rebels that his forces had used them, noting that such weapons “would mean killing thousands or tens of thousands of people in a matter of minutes — who could hide something like that?”
Mr. Kerry and Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, met in Paris on Monday evening to try to lay the groundwork for talks that would bring together representatives of Mr. Assad’s government and the Syrian opposition. The Assad government has indicated that it is prepared to attend, but the Syrian opposition is still in the process of picking new leaders.
One factor influencing the E.U. arms debate is the support that the Assad government is receiving from its backers. The number of Iranian arms flights to Damascus initially dipped after Mr. Kerry raised American concerns with Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki during a trip to Baghdad in March about the need to inspect Iranian planes crossing Iraqi airspace. But in early May, the pace of Iranian flights picked up, according to American intelligence.
Mr. Kerry said additional meetings between American and Russian officials would be held to work out “how this conference can best be prepared for the possibilities of success, not failure.”
Mr. Kerry, who arrived in Paris on Monday, and his counterparts are trying to lay the groundwork for an international meeting in Geneva next week that the United States hopes will bring together representatives of Mr. Assad’s government and the Syrian opposition. The Assad government has indicated that it is prepared to attend, but the Syrian opposition is still in the process of picking new leaders and it is not yet clear which opposition leaders might be prepared to go to the Geneva session.
“Both of us, Russia and the United States are deeply committed, remain committed to trying to implement the Geneva 1 principles, which require a transitional government by mutual consent that has full executive authority in order to allow the people of Syria to decide the future of Syria,” Mr. Kerry said.
The Pentagon has also expressed concerns about the recent delivery to Syria from Russia of sophisticated anti-ship cruise missiles. Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chief, has said that it may embolden Mr. Assad. Both the United States and Israeli have pressed Russia not to deliver yet another weapon: the S-300 air defense system. And Hezbollah has not only been sending fighters to Syria but has been sending military supplies to them from Lebanon, Syrian rebel commanders have told American officials.
The general expectation is that the meeting will be held by mid-June.
Navi Pillay, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, said in Geneva on Monday that not enough was being done for Syrian civilians trying to escape from one of the latest battle fronts in Syria, the embattled town of Qusayr. On Monday, Ms. Pillay called for safe passage for civilians, voiced concern at reports that hundreds of people had been killed or injured by indiscriminate shelling, and said that thousands of people were trapped in the area by the fighting.
Reporting
was contributed by Nick Cumming-Bruce from Geneva; Hania Mourtada from Beirut, Lebanon; and Michael R. Gordon and Steven Erlanger from Paris.
Overall, she said, the international community is failing in its duty to victims of the conflict, invoking the responsibility of governments to protect civilians of other countries from war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
“Appalling violations of the most basic human rights are occurring in Syria, and I fear that we in the international community are failing to meet our fundamental obligations to the victims,” she said.
Ms. Pillay, speaking at the opening of a session of the Human Rights Council, repeated an appeal for the Security Council to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court in The Hague for prosecution of war crimes suspects. A special Syria-focused session of the rights council is expected in the next few days, called by Qatar, Turkey and the United States.
All parties to Syria’s conflict have shown “flagrant disregard of international law and human life,” Ms. Pillay said, pointing to what she called indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force by the government and the targeting of civilian locations such as schools and hospitals, as well as “gruesome crimes” she said were committed by antigovernment forces, including torture and executions.
On Monday, Yara Abbas, a journalist for the Syrian state-owned television station Ikhbariya TV, was fatally shot while in the suburbs of Qusayr while accompanying Syrian forces that came under fire, said activists.
But while fighting flares in the Qusayr area along the Lebanese border, pressure is mounting on the diplomatic front to reach an agreement on modifying the arms embargo because the European bloc’s existing sanctions package will lapse after Friday. A new deal could extend existing sanctions, including a freeze on Syrian bank assets and travel bans on individuals. But a decision on the future of the embargo requires unanimity among the Union’s 27 countries.
A stalemate that caused the sanctions to lapse would be another serious embarrassment for the bloc, which has struggled to present a united front on plans to quell a four-year old sovereign debt crisis that has slowed the economy and led to skyrocketing unemployment.
Earlier in the day, William Hague, the British foreign secretary, threatened to abandon the sanctions package in favor of unilateral arms shipments.
Britain would seek “common ground” with its European partners but “doing the right thing for Syria” is “more important than whether the E.U. is able to stick together on every detail of this,” Mr. Hague told reporters.
“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 radicalizing people,” said Mr. Hague.
A key sticking point at the meeting is whether to set a deadline, perhaps as soon as July or August, to begin shipping weapons to anti-Assad forces. The French and British want to start making such shipments without the need for a further decision by E.U. ministers. But other states do not want any shipments of lethal aid to kick in automatically.
Austria, Sweden and the Czech Republic have displayed the strongest resistance to easing the embargo. These countries distrust large parts of the Syrian opposition, and they fear the weapons will end up in the hands of jihadist groups and inflame fighting in the Middle East.
They also say funneling arms to the opposition now would undermine the chances of a deal with the Assad regime before the planned peace conference in Geneva.
Nick Cumming-Bruce coontributed from Geneva; Hania Mourtada contributed from Beirut, and Michael Gordon and Steven Erlanger contributed from Paris.
