Arab states are free to offer Syria rebels military support-statement

Arab states are free to offer military support to rebels fighting the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad if they wish, according a final statement of Arab League ministers on Wednesday.
   
The statement was issued at the end of a meeting of the League ministers in Cairo.
   
Previously the League had stressed that the Syrian opposition and rebels should be supported by humanitarian and diplomatic means.

The Arab foreign ministers also offered the Syrian opposition coalition the country's seat at the Arab League on condition that it first forms a representative executive council.
    
Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby announced to offer to the Syrian National Coalition, the Western- and Arab-backed opposition umbrella group, on Wednesday in Cairo.
    
The 22-member Arab League suspended Syria's membership in 2011 after President Bashar Assad's government did not abide by an Arab peace plan that aimed to end the conflict.
 
       
Diplomacy and Arms

The chief of staff of the rebel army in Syria came to Brussels on Wednesday to plead with the international community to supply it with arms and ammunition so it can resist attacks by the regime of Syria's President Bashar Assad.                      

Gen. Salim Idris, head of the rebel's Supreme Military Council, said anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles are urgently needed to protect the civilian population.  
                                                
Idris complained that Russia and Iran are helping the Assad regime, while the West condemns Assad but does not supply the rebels with weapons.
                                                                                                             
Meanwhile, Britain said it would increase aid to Syrian opposition forces, including supplying armored vehicles, and warned that Britain and the European Union must be ready to take further steps if no political solution to the crisis is found.                     

Hague added that no Western nation advocated military intervention in Syria, but said the world's efforts to try to end the bloodshed there had been "an abject failure".

This after US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday that the Obama administration is confident that the vast majority of weapons being supplied to Syrian rebels by U.S. allies are going to moderates and not finding their way to extremists.
 
On the Field

Syrian rebels say they have seized a convoy of United Nations observers near the Golan Heights, according to a video posted on the Internet site YouTube on Thursday by a violence monitoring group.
   
A man saying he was from the "Martyrs of Yarmouk" brigade said the convoy would not be released until forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad withdrew from the village of Jamla.
   
He stood in front of a two white armored vehicles and a truck with "UN" written on them. At least three people in the video were wearing United Nations light blue helmets while bullet-proof vests were visible in the vehicles.


Refugee Crisis
 
Separately, the U.N. refugee agency announced today that the number of Syrians who have fled their war-ravaged country and are seeking assistance now exceeds 1 million.                                                 

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, said in a statement released in Geneva that the figure is based on reports from his agency's field offices in neighboring countries that have provided refuge for Syrians escaping the civil war.                                   

The relentless violence also has devastated many cities and forced hundreds of thousands of Syrians to seek refuge abroad.                               


AP/REUTERS/LBCI

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