Britain drops plans to arm Syrian rebels

PanARMENIAN.Net - Britain has abandoned plans to arm Syrian rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad and believes he might survive in office for years, sources familiar with government thinking say, Reuters reported.

The sources also told Reuters that a peace conference to try to end the conflict - now in its third year - might not happen until next year if at all.

"Britain is clearly not going to arm the rebels in any way, shape or form," said one source, pointing to a parliamentary motion passed last week urging prior consultation of lawmakers.

The reasons for the shift were that British public opinion was largely opposed, and there were fears that any weapons Britain supplied could fall into the hands of Islamist militants.

"It will train them, give them tactical advice and intelligence, teach them command and control. But public opinion, like it or not, is against intervention."

The British position amounted to one of the gloomiest assessments of the rebels' prospects yet.

It was Prime Minister David Cameron who led the charge earlier this year for the European Union to drop an arms embargo on Syria, which London and Paris had argued was one-sidedly penalizing the anti-Assad opposition.

The involvement of Iran and Hezbollah had shifted the balance of power on the battlefield in Assad's favor, the sources said, giving him less incentive to negotiate, and the West had no strategy to end the conflict soon.

"The Western assessment has changed," said one source. "We thought Assad could only hold on for a few months. We now think he can last a few years."