EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has called for caution over lifting the EU’s arms embargo against Syria in order to supply the rebels fighting the Bashar al-Assad’s regime with weapons.
"Any decision to lift an arms embargo, you need to consider the implications of that," she said in Brussels on Saturday at a forum organized by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a think-tank devoted to strengthening transatlantic cooperation..
"Would putting more weapons into the field make it more or less likely that others would do the same? What would be the response of Assad, based on what we know about his response so far? Would it stop people being killed or would it kill people faster?" Ashton asked.
"In the end you always need a political process, whatever else you might do. Before we make that decision we need to work through, very carefully, to get the best understanding that we can on the implications," she said.
The EU has imposed an arms embargo on Syria since May, 2011. It was extended last month for another three months to June 1 by EU Foreign Ministers.
But at the EU summit last Friday, France and Britain pushed their EU partners to lift the arms embargo in order to supply the opposition with weapons.
However, several EU member states are reluctant to lift the embargo, expressing concerns that more weapons will only fuel conflicts in Syria.
EU Foreign Ministers will discuss the issue at the end of this week at an informal meeting in Dublin, Ireland, the country which currently holds the six-month EU chairmanship.