Syria Opposition: EU Arms Embargo Lift 'Too Little, Too Late'
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Syria's opposition on Tuesday denounced as "too little, too late" an EU decision to lift an arms embargo on rebels fighting the regime of President Bashar Assad.
"Definitely it is a positive step, but we are afraid it could be too little, too late," Louay Safi, spokesman for Syria's main opposition National Coalition, told Agence France Presse.
The European Union agreed Monday to lift its embargo against arming Syria's rebels, but no member state intends to send any arms in the coming months for fear of endangering a U.S.-Russian peace initiative dubbed Geneva 2.
A French official in Paris stressed that "this is a theoretical lifting of the embargo. In concrete terms, there will be no decision on any deliveries before August 1.”
"The Syrian people are disappointed. They thought that democracies care about those who seek democracy," Safi told AFP on the sidelines of an opposition meeting in Istanbul that has been stalled by divisions.
"We need to provide protection for civilians, for the Syrian people. Weapons would be one element but also we would like to have a more serious position taken, a firm decision taken by the European Union," he added.
A rebel spokesman inside Syria also lashed out against the EU decision.
"Why wait until August? Why wait another two months? So that the Syrian people continue to be subjected to genocide?" Qassem Saadeddine told AFP by telephone.
"We need anti-aircraft rocket launchers and anti-tank missiles," he added.
Meanwhile Russia, which has supported Assad, said the EU's decision to lift the arms embargo on the rebels "directly harms" the prospects of convening a conference on the Syrian crisis.
The proposed "Geneva 2" meeting is expected to happen some time next month after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed in May to try and bring the warring sides together at conference.

Europeans, Americans, Russians are keeping the status quo like this so they would impose later their conditions on both Assad and Rebels!
Syrian people in the end will pay the price of blood and disaster, and my humble opinion is that the 3 are the same player.

now it is the turn of the fsa to get weapons so that the status quo remains as is and they keep killing each other.... so unfortunate that people do not learn from what happened to Lebanon.

Geha, the majority of Syrians don't want and are fighting the tyrant Assad,,, but the tyrant is so overwhelmingly armed its very easy to captivate the populous ... Wake up and smell the coffee if the rebels get a quarter of the arms of the tyrant the tyrant wouldn't last but days....
Russia and Iran are pathetic to say they have the right to arm a murderous regime and at the same time they cry foul when the west threatens to arm the rebels.... Don't worry Assad tyrant, your safe the west wants to keep you in place since you are Israel's best friend... Protecting the golan and not recognizing (officially) the sheaba farms as Lebanese.
God willing the people will overcome this tyrant and the west Israel Iran and Russia will be shocked when a people and a government comes into Syria loyal to none of them... A government truly for the Syrian people only.!