With the Syrian govt. forces all set to root out the rebels from their chief rathole in Homs,the rebel leaders accuse Britain of being "too cautious" in providing them with arms,etc. The Brit. For.Sec. Mr.Hague has ordered all Brit.diplomats out of the country. If there is much hesitation on the part of Britain it is because in this crisis,Russia and China are not aboard the insidious UN resolutions pushed forward by the US and west. They were earlier tricked into regime change by default in Libya,by agreeing to a UN resolution that merely approved protection of civilians-actually abused ,leading to a full-scale NATO assault on Gadhaffi,with naval and air forces attacking Syrian forces and bases daily,and SAS troops and hordes of mercenaries (contractors) on the ground advising and fighting the Libyans,doing most of the battle.Carefully engineered media shots showed rebels behaving like monkeys in their pick-ups pretending to be the ones doing the fighting.One US sub alone launched over 100 Tomahawk missiles at key Libyan defence installations.
With Russia and China firmly behind the Syrian govt.,in preventing "regime change" as was perpetrated in Libya-to steal its oil,here to rearrange the boundaries of the nations surrounding Israel,the pretenders to imperial dreams are having second thoughts about openly defying international protocol and supporting the rebels with arms,etc.While the Turks may have latter-day delusions of grandeur of the past Ottomans,the Qataris representing the "nouveau-rage" nations of the "oily" Arab world,Britain and its experienced For.Sec. know when a cause is very difficult to attain and are cutting their losses diplomatically.Who will now openly come to the rescue of the rebel forces with supplies of arms,and boots on the ground when the regime is being protected diplomatically by the Russians and Chinese is the big Q.India would do well to weigh the odds in the balance,keep neutral and resis regime change through devious means at the UN,and not get swayed by the shrill voices from the west to join their "international brigade",which has as much chances of unseating Assad as did the internationals unseating Generalissimo Franco in the Spanish Civil War!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... eader.html
Britain is too cautious on arming Syrian rebels, says exiled opposition leader
Xcpt:
By Alex Spillius, Paris
02 Mar 2012
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Burhan Ghalioun, the president of the Syrian National Council, called on foreign countries to start arming and supplying rebels fighting Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Britain and other Western powers were, unlike Arab states such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia, too guarded in their approach, he claimed.
“The international community is very slow and still its volume on Syria is low,” he said. “They are just whispering against a regime that is brutally killing their own people every day. We welcomed Britain’s stand and positions earlier but we think it has a quieter voice now and we don’t know why. You have to ask Mr Hague why, but I can see that they are very, very cautious.”
The Foreign Secretary, along with his counterparts in France and the United States, has not supported establishing “humanitarian corridors” to opposition areas, which the SNC wants to see protected by an Arab-led peacekeeping force. With diplomatic action at the United Nations blocked by Russia and China, Western powers have so far also ruled out military aid, believing it could spark a civil war. They also have doubts about the effectiveness of the SNC itself, and about the Free Syria Army, a loose coalition of army deserters which, it is feared, may include Islamist radicals and other, free-ranging militias.
Attempting to address those concerns, Prof Ghalioun, 67, who in normal life is a political scientist at the Sorbonne, announced the formation of a new SNC “military bureau” to organise deliveries of weapons from foreign countries to the rebels. The military bureau would be located in southern Turkey and would aim to bring together the FSA and other groups.
“The key task is to unify the military struggle inside the country so we don’t have the chaotic situation where there is no proper chain of command or lack of order in the country now and after the collapse of the Syrian regime,” he said.Related Articles
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Small amounts of arms are being smuggled to rebels courtesy of Qatar and Saudi Arabia and Western countries are reportedly providing help with communications and some non-lethal military equipment, but according to Prof Ghalioun, the quantities are small. Britain has denied being involved in providing any such supplies.