{"id":35458,"date":"2013-03-15T12:00:45","date_gmt":"2013-03-15T10:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/?p=35458"},"modified":"2013-03-15T12:00:45","modified_gmt":"2013-03-15T10:00:45","slug":"syria-uprising-anniversarydavid-cameron-and-francois-hollande-press-the-eu-to-help-the-rebels-syria-conflict-news-35458","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/syria-uprising-anniversarydavid-cameron-and-francois-hollande-press-the-eu-to-help-the-rebels-syria-conflict-news-35458\/","title":{"rendered":"Syria Uprising Anniversary:David Cameron and Francois Hollande press the EU to help the rebels \/ Syria Conflict News"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Syrian<\/a>
Syrian and local children release balloons and form the word "Syria" with candles during a moment of silence the night before the second anniversary of the start of the Syrian Revolution at the Citadel, an ancient Roman landmark in Amman, March 14, 2013.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Britain and France will press the EU today to lift an arms embargo against Syria and unblock military aid to rebels on the second anniversary of the uprising.<\/h1>\n

David Cameron and French president Francois Hollande will address a summit in Brussels.<\/p>\n

They will say they are both anxious to be freed up to despatch lethal weaponry if necessary to rebalance the odds in the continuing bloody war.<\/p>\n

Two years after the start of the Syrian uprising, the pair will urge the others to bring forward the end-of-May date for reviewing the existing arms embargo, which only allows for “non-lethal” military support.<\/p>\n

Syria was not originally on the agenda at a summit discussing the economic crisis designed to step up efforts to boost jobs and growth and revive economic recovery prospects.<\/p>\n

But Mr Cameron and Mr Hollande got together on arrival in Brussels yesterday, agreeing their countries were both ready to go it alone if necessary to help the rebels.<\/p>\n

The idea is controversial, with some EU leaders concerned the move could escalate the Syrian crisis by putting weapons in the hands of the wrong rebel groups.<\/p>\n

But Mr Cameron and Mr Hollande argue that the desired political solution first needs a more equal military balance – something the EU’s own arms embargo is preventing.<\/p>\n

And so far the odds on winning the necessary unanimous accord to lift the arms embargo before the scheduled review date look slim.<\/p>\n

“There is a perversity about the EU arms embargo … it is backfiring,” said one Downing Street official. “The embargo does not stop those aiding Assad, but it does stop those who want to help the opposition.”<\/p>\n

But the official said there was currently no intention of defying the rest without further negotiations, adding: “We are not considering going ahead (with arming the rebels) while the current arms embargo is in place.<\/p>\n

“What we want is to start the discussion about changing the arms embargo.”<\/p>\n

Mr Cameron has already hinted that “it’s not out of the question we might have to do things in our own way”.<\/p>\n

And Mr Hollande said yesterday: “We are ready to support the rebels … we cannot allow the massacre of a people by a regime which right now does not want a political transition.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the summit is due to agree conclusions vowing to focus on competitiveness to generate jobs and growth and get stagnant economies moving.<\/p>\n

But tensions remain between countries intent on strict austerity measures and those favouring more flexible budget restrictions to give space for recovery.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Britain and France will press the EU today to lift an arms embargo against Syria and unblock military aid to rebels on the second anniversary of the uprising.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":702,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,63,1,118,37,14],"tags":[47767,47769,47765,5809,47766,23047,9002,21615,17293,47764,47768],"class_list":["post-35458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-daily","category-general","category-hot","category-middle-east","category-world","tag-britain-and-france-will-press-eu-today","tag-brussels-eu-summit","tag-cameron-and-hollande-press-eu","tag-david-cameron","tag-eu-help-the-syria-rebels","tag-francois-hollande","tag-syria","tag-syria-conflict","tag-syria-uprising","tag-syria-uprising-anniversary","tag-syria-uprising-second-anniversary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/702"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35458\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}