BRUSSELS - The European Union said its member states within days will be able to send weapons to help Syria’s outgunned rebels, seeking to pressure President Bashar Assad’s regime ahead of planned peace talks mediated by the United States and Russia.
Though no EU country has any such plans now to send arms, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the decision “sends a very strong message from Europe to the Assad regime.” He spoke after an all-day meeting of foreign ministers Monday that laid bare EU hesitation on feeding arms in a foreign conflict only months after the 27-memberbloc won the Nobel Peace Prize.
“It is extremely important not to do anything to rock the boat. [To] Start delivering weapons now would rock the boat. No one is intending to do that,” Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said.
But in a bid to force Syria to participate in good faith at the prospective “Geneva II” talks next month, the meeting in Brussels dangled the option of sending in weapons and military equipment as soon as Saturday, when the current sanctions regime ends.
Also, U.S. Sen. John Mc-Cain, who has vocally called for the United States to militarily intervene in Syria, traveled into Syria on Monday for the first time since the civil war started, to meetwith rebel forces.
Several EU ministers said arming the opposition would create a more level playing field that could force Assad into a negotiated settlement.
Britain and France - the EU’s biggest military powers - had been pushing the bloc to lift its embargo on delivery of weapons into Syria to help the embattled opposition. But Austria, which has sent peacekeepers to the Golan Heights between Syria and Israel, was vocally opposed - one of several EU countries that argued that the region is already awash in weapons.
“The EU should hold the line. We are a peace movement and not a war movement,” Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said.
In the end, Austria agreed with the text, which “took note” of the commitment of member states to consider at a national level sending arms to the Syrian opposition.
EU countries will individually examine their export license applications one by one and will not proceed “at this stage” with deliveries of military equipment, the joint declaration said, though it did not specify when that might change.
EU ministers agreed to revisit the issue before Aug. 1, but countries, based on previous EU guidelines, can now decide for themselves whether they want to arm the rebels.
The EU nations also agreed everything possible should be done to control any exports and make sure they do not fall into the hands of extremists or terrorists - one of the thorniest issues for France and Britain in their calls to arm the rebels. Each country will require “adequate safeguards against misuse of authorizations [for export] granted,” the EU text said.
Hague said Britain would only send in weapons “in company with other nations, in carefully controlled circumstances, and in compliance with international law.”
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius left the talks earlier Monday to return to Paris to meet with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who are leading the effort to bring the two warring Syrian sides tothe negotiating table.
Assad’s government has agreed in principle to participate in peace talks in Geneva, but the exact date, agenda and participants remain unclear.
The U.S. and its Arab allies are attempting to secure the participation of Syria’s fractured opposition at an international peace conference in Geneva, planned for next month. Russia is pledging to deliver Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime to the talks.
Meanwhile, The U.N.’s top human-rights human rights body agreed Monday to hold another urgent session on the civil war in Syria, hoping to prod accountability for the killing of thousands of civilians.
The U.S., Turkey and Qatar persuaded the 47-member Human Rights Council to hold a debate Wednesday looking into the violence in the Syrian town of Qusair, near Lebanon.
The move came as the U.N.’s top human-rights human rights official, Navi Pillay, warned that the international community was failing Syria’s victims.
Syrian Ambassador Faysal Khabbaz Hamoui accused the council of catering to nations that support the rebels and claimed that Pillay’s rights office has taken an “irresponsible and biased attitude” toward his government.
In Paris, officials traveling with Kerry had no comment on the EU arms decision.
Washington has been reluctant to provide rebels with more sophisticated weapons for fear they might end up in the hands of the radical Islamic factions.
Meanwhile, Syrian troops gained ground Monday in a nine-day offensive on the western town of Qusair.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition group, said regime troops and allied fighters from the Lebanese militia Hezbollah captured the nearby town of Hamidiyeh, tightening their siege of Qusair. Observatory director Rami Abdul-Rahman said troops were trying to capture the village of Haret al-Turkumen in order to put Qusair under “complete siege.”
Syrian state TV said troops captured more parts of the northern and central rebel-held neighborhoods of Qusair. The town had been under rebel control almost from the start of the uprising against Assad in 2011.
Al-Mayadeen TV, which has several reporters embedded with Syrian troops, aired video from the town showing widespread destruction. At least three bodies could be seen on one of the streets.
Also, a Syrian TV reporter was killed by gunfire Monday. Yara Abbas had been covering the fighting near Qusair.
Abbas, who worked for state-owned Al-Ikhbariyah TV, was attacked by rebels who ambushed the car carrying her and her crew near the Dabaa base close to Qusair, the Syrian Information Ministry said in a statement carried by state TV. A cameraman and his assistant were also wounded, the report said.
A U.S. State Department official said the department was aware of McCain’s crossing into Syrian territory Monday.
While in Syria, McCain met with Gen. Salim Idris, the leader of the military wing of the Syrian opposition group the Supreme Military Council. President Barack Obama’s administration considers Idris much more of a moderate than the Nusra Front, which has ties to al-Qaida and is better funded and organized. The president has refused to provide the rebels with military support, because he fears that will empower the more radical elements of the opposition.
McCain entered Syria from southern Turkey, according to his spokesman, Brian Rodgers, adding that McCain had been in the region to attend the World Economic Forum meeting in Jordan over the weekend.
In 2011, McCain traveled to Libya to meet with rebel forces there while they were fighting Moammar Gadhafi and made similar calls for the U.S. to provide military aid to the rebels.
Information for this article was contributed by Jamey Keaten, Raf Casert, John Heilprin, Bradley Klapper, Albert Aji and Bassem Mroue of The Associated Press;
and by Michael S. Schmidt and Eric Schmitt of The New York Times.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 05/28/2013