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Foreign Secretary William Hague: “Our policy has to move towards more active efforts to prevent the loss of life in Syria and this means stepping up our support to the opposition and thereby increasing the pressure on the regime to accept a political solution. What we face is not a choice between diplomacy on the one hand and practical assistance on the other: helping the opposition is crucial to bringing about a political transition and saving lives, and both must be pursued together… All our assistance will be carefully calibrated and monitored as well as legal, and will be aimed at saving life…The Cabinet is in no doubt that this is a necessary, proportionate and lawful response to a situation of extreme humanitarian suffering.”

(source: FCO website)