Britain has taken the lead in intensifying international discussions about aiding and arming Syria's rebels, who are due to announce the creation of a military command designed to unify insurgent ranks fighting Bashar al-Assad's regime.
General Sir David Richards, the Chief of the Defence Staff, duly convened a meeting of military commanders from the West and the Middle East, in London on Nov 9. Photo: GETTY
By Alex Spillius, David Blair and Christopher Hope
5:47PM GMT 11 Dec 2012
The announcement, set to be made by the Syrian Opposition Coalition at a Friends of Syria conference attended by 130 countries or organisations on Wednesday, is intended to enhance its credibility on the international stage.
Factionalism and poor organisation among the rebels has been a major barrier to Western countries trying to encourage a transition of power.
The Syrian opposition arrived at the meeting in Morocco boosted by a decision by Washington to blacklist the al-Nusra Front, a rebel group linked to Al-Qaeda in Iraq. The State Department accused al-Nusra of trying to "hijack the struggles of the Syrian people for its own malign purposes".
The US is also expected to recognise the SOC, whose full name is the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people, following the lead of Britain and France, which took the same decision several weeks ago.
The decision is expected to be accompanied by pledges of additional humanitarian and "non-lethal" logistical support for the opposition.
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Like the Americans, the British have not yet decided to arm the rebels directly, but are moving in that direction in a bid to end a bloody stalemate that has endured for 20 months and claimed an estimated 40,000 lives.
Downing Street refused to be drawn on whether the Attorney General had been asked to draw up advice on the legality of military intervention in Syria.
The Prime Minister's official spokesman pointed to the fact that David Cameron and Francois Hollande, the French president, urged their defence chiefs to discuss a "range of options with partners".
General Sir David Richards, the Chief of the Defence Staff, duly convened a meeting of military commanders from the West and the Middle East, in London on Nov 9.
General Mashal a-Zaben, the chairman of Jordan's joint chiefs of staff, was present, along with his counterparts from Turkey, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. France and the US each sent a general.
The gathering discuss various scenarios in Syria, including the best response to any use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime. However, specific options for military intervention were not considered.
"We have not got into precise details of planning, or the sort of conversations about who would arm who but this is an ongoing discussion. We have said we are keeping all options open and we mean it," said a Whitehall source. "We are still seeking a diplomatic solution to this. But the situation on the ground is getting worse. We're not ruling anything out at this stage."
The British and the French recently persuaded the rest of the EU to renew its sanctions and arms embargo against Syria by only three months until March 1, creating the flexibility to arm the rebels swiftly afterwards.
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