BICOM

Foreign Secretary William Hague yesterday announced that the UK government would assist moderate Syrian opposition groups by supplying them, for the first time, with non-lethal military equipment.

Previous UK aid to Syria has been purely humanitarian. Taking advantage of a recent modification in the European Union’s arms embargo on Syria, Hague told the House of Commons that £3 million had already been allocated with a further £10 million to follow, to supply equipment including body armour and armour-plated vehicles. The money will also be used to purchase chemical weapons testing equipment and training for armed groups in international human rights and legal standards.

Hague said that “All our assistance will be carefully calibrated and monitored as well as legal, and will be aimed at saving life.” He added “The Cabinet is in no doubt that this is a necessary, proportionate and lawful response to a situation of extreme humanitarian suffering.”

The Foreign Secretary said that the situation in Syria had reached “catastrophic proportions” and that “the international community cannot stand still in the face of this reality.” Warning that Syria had become the “top destination for jihadists,” Hague said that moderate elements of the Syrian opposition must be bolstered in order to marginalise extremist opposition groups and pressure President Assad’s regime to negotiate.

Meanwhile, in what Hague described as a “sad milestone,” the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, announced that the number of Syrian refugees who have fled to neighbouring countries has passed one million. In Syria itself, an armed opposition group appeared to have detained around twenty UN peacekeepers on the Golan Heights near the border with Israel. The group demanded that Assad’s forces leave the area and accused the UN monitors of being “agents of Israel”.