British Foreign Secretary William
Hague says the U.K. is increasingly concerned there is evidence of that
chemical weapons have been used in Syria.
Hague said such allegations must
be urgently investigated, telling British lawmakers Monday that those who have
ordered the use of such weapons "will be held to account."
He reiterated that no decisions have
been made to arm Syrian rebels but stressed that Britain and France are
convinced a European Union arms embargo will need to be amended or lifted
altogether. The embargo expires at the end of May.
Earlier, a Saudi convoy
loaded with humanitarian aid for the Syrian refugees arrived to
Jordan in a bid to help the displaced Syrians and “to ease the burdens
shouldered by Jordan”.
The convoy is
made up of 41 trucks loaded with food, blankets, clothing, and water.
This comes as President Bashar Assad's key
military unit in charge of protecting Damascus is running secret prisons
holding hundreds of suspected regime opponents, a Syria-based human rights
group said in a report.
The Violations Documentation
Center said the regime's 4th Division runs detention centers in its bases in
and around Damascus. The division is commanded by Maher Assad, the president's
younger brother. It is considered a pillar of loyalist forces and is charged
with defending the capital, the seat of Assad's power.
The Center, which has tracked the
dead, wounded and missing since the start of the uprising in March 2011, said
it interviewed "several" former detainees, who had been held in small
crowded cells and beaten by guards.
Two years into the uprising against Syrian President Bachar Assad,
government forces are fighting hard to maintain control of cities. Many rural
areas and provincial towns have fallen to the rebels. Aleppo, formerly a
business hub, is locked in a stalemate between the rival forces.
Rebels had advanced in northern Syria, near
Turkey, and southern Deraa province near Jordan. But government forces have
kept the rebels out of central Damascus and hold more than half of Homs city,
which links the capital to Assad's Alawite heartlands near the Mediterranean
coast.
March was the bloodiest month yet in a
conflict which began as a protest movement against four decades of Assad family
rule but has descended into an increasingly sectarian civil war in which at
least 70,000 people have been killed.
Western powers, who want to see the end of
Assad but do not want to intervene militarily, have been alarmed by the advance
of Islamist groups like the Nusra Front in a conflict which has deepened the
Middle East's sectarian divide.
Positions:
Jordan’s
Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour said his country, now home to 450,000 Syrian refugees
including nearly a quarter of a million children, will appeal to the United
Nations Security Council to discuss the repercussions of this influx which is
“threatening the country’s national
security”.
In his governmental statement, Ensour said that
the cabinet considers that the Syrian crisis and its repercussions have become
a threat to Jordan, pointing out that they will refer to the UN Security
Council in order to urge the countries to carry out their security and
humanitarian duties.
On the field:
The Syrian Television reported that a group of terrorists associated with the Nusra Front
blew up on Monday a church in Syria’s Deir al-Zour, noting that terrorist gunmen
confessed that they received money and weapons from foreign parties in order to
commit acts of vandalism in Syria.
This comes as
the Iraqi authorities have grounded a Syrian airplane coming from Moscow and
another Iranian airplane coming Tehran for inspection purposes, before allowing
them to carry on their flights toward Damascus.
It is worth noting that the Syrian government troops have
broken through a six-month rebel blockade in northern Syria and are now
fighting to recapture a vital highway, opposition and state media said.
Rebels had kept the army bottled up in the
Wadi al-Deif and Hamidiya military bases in Idlib province. But on Sunday,
President Bashar al-Assad's forces outflanked the rebels and broke through, the
pro-government al-Baath newspaper said.
The insurgents counter-attacked on Monday
but their front has been weakened in recent weeks due to infighting and the
deployment of forces to other battles, activists said.
The break-out from the bases, located
outside Maarat al-Nuaman town, may enable the army to recapture the main route
into Aleppo, Syria's largest city, and bolster their fragile supply lines in
the heart of the rebel-held north.
REUTERS/LBCI/AP
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