WORLD_ Britain could still arm the Syrian rebels, William Hague says

Britain could still arm the Syrian rebels, William Hague says

Britain could still arm the Syrian rebels, William Hague has insisted, provoking accusations of confusion at the highest level of Government.


Foreign secertary William Hague told MPs: 'We have not taken any decision about arms.' Photo: ITN


By Christopher Hope, and Colin Freeman
8:39PM BST 16 Jul 2013 Comments
153 Comments


The Foreign Secretary's comments appeared to contradict reports earlier this week which claimed that David Cameron had decided against the move. Senior military figures had apparently warned him that sending small arms and missiles would make no difference to the conflict either way.

Addressing a committee of MPs, Mr Hague said Britain had not ruled out sending weapons to opposition forces, despite concerns they could fall into the wrong hands or prove largely ineffective.

Pressed by MPs, Mr Hague said the Government had made “no decision to send arms to the Syrian opposition”, but added: “Equally, we haven’t ruled out any option. Any reports that we have ruled anything out are not correct.”

He was speaking in response to reports on Monday that Downing Street had been advised by army chiefs on the National Security Council that the Syrian conflict was already too advanced for British military support to the rebels to make any difference.

They had concluded that the only way the West could tilt the fight in the rebels’ favour was through air strikes on President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. Instead, it was claimed that Downing Street had decided to limit itself to providing non-lethal support such as communications equipment and body armour.


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Mr Hague gave MPs a breakdown of the debate he would have with his officials before any decision on arming the rebels was made.

He said Britain would need “a very high level of confidence” about who was going to come into the possession of such weapons, and the command structures of any groups that received them.

“You would have to be fairly confident you would hear about them if they were not used by that group, and were used by other groups. And then there are ways of tracking weapons or limiting their use. If we were to take such a decision we would have to have such confidence.”

Douglas Alexander, the shadow foreign secretary, told The Daily Telegraph: “This latest answer by William Hague only confirms the confusion still surrounding the Government’s approach to Syria.

“Given their inability to answer the most basic questions about their approach over recent months, there is now widespread concern within the House of Commons, including among even their own backbenchers.

“If, in fact, the Government intends to arm Syria’s opposition at some point, ministers will have to come to Parliament to make that case.”

John Baron, a Tory backbencher who has been publicly calling for a Commons vote before any British military involvement in Syria, said: “Despite reports to the contrary from Number 10, Mr Hague has made it absolutely clear that all options remain on the table.”

Mr Hague also announced yesterday that Britain was to send a consignment of equipment to protect rebel fighters against chemical weapon attacks – including 5,000 escape hoods, nerve agent pre-treatment tablets and chemical weapon detector paper.

Chemical warfare experts warned that there was a risk that the equipment could do more harm than good if it was not accompanied by appropriate training.

Users must be drilled in how to assess threats and how to take the correct dosages of medication, as well as the limitations of the equipment in the field, said Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former commander of Britain’s specialist bio-security forces.

“I back the idea of giving the rebels chemical protection equipment, but they will need at least four or five hours of training to learn how to use it,” he said.

A Foreign Office source said: “It is right that there will be a need for some training, and we will try to teach a range of Syrians how to use it themselves and then train others so they can pass the knowledge around on the ground.”



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