Britain Says No Decision Taken on Arming Syrian Rebels

Britain remains committed to amending the EU arms embargo on Syria, Foreign Secretary William Hague said Monday, but stressed it had taken no decisions to provide weapons to the rebels.

He said it was important to demonstrate to Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime that "no option is off the table" if he failed to agree a political solution to end the bloodshed.

Hague was speaking the day before flying to Jordan for a meeting of the Friends of Syria group, which backs the uprising, for talks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and other top diplomats.

"The case for further amendments to the arms embargo on Syria is compelling, in order to increase the pressure on the regime, and to give us the flexibility to respond to continued radicalization and conflict," Hague said in the House of Commons.

He insisted Britain had not armed the rebels so far and had made no decision to do so, but said amending the EU embargo was part of a package of efforts to end the conflict.

"We have to be open to every way of strengthening moderates and saving lives rather than the current trajectory of extremism and murder," Hague told lawmakers.

"We have not sent arms to any side during the conflicts of the Arab Spring. No decision has been made to go down this route."

Amid fears weapons could fall into the wrong hands such as al-Qaida-linked groups, Hague said: "We could only supply arms in carefully controlled circumstances and with very clear commitments from the opposition side."

Wednesday's meeting will pave the way for an international conference on Syria in June, dubbed Geneva 2 after a conference in the Swiss city last year, to bring together the rebels and representatives of Assad's regime to try to establish peace.

Hague said that both Britain and France believed "that changes to the embargo are not separate from the diplomatic work, but essential to it".

"We must make clear that if the regime does not negotiate seriously at the Geneva conference, no option is off the table," the foreign secretary said.

Hague also said Britain now had "physiological" evidence that the Syrian regime had used the chemical weapon Sarin in the conflict.