Brussels, 04/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Sunday 3 March, British Foreign Secretary William Hague announced that nothing should be ruled out with regard to supplying arms to the Syrian opposition in future - even if this is currently prohibited by the European arms embargo. “You can reach the point eventually where humanitarian need is so great... that you have to do something new in order to save lives”, Hague told the BBC. “If this is going to go on for months or years and more, tens of thousands of people are going to die, and countries like Iraq and Lebanon and Jordan are going to be destabilised, it is not something we can ignore”, he said.
While waiting, the United Kingdom will this week announce new non-lethal aid. Hague said the package would be given “directly to the opposition” and would include “more equipment to help save lives”.
Assad attacks London. In an interview published in the Sunday Times on 3 March, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad blamed London for wanting to arm the opposition. He wanted to know how the British could expect the violence to be reduced when they wanted to send military material to terrorists.
Hague considered the interview to be “one of the most delusional interviews that any national leader has given in modern times”. He said that al-Assad is presiding over a massacre. “We, Britain, are the people sending food and shelter and blankets to the help the people driven from their homes and families in his name”. “We're the people sending medical supplies to try and look after people injured and abused by soldiers working for this man.” (CG/transl.fl)