Tensions soar as EU lifts arms embargo

A Syrian army soldier inspects a house in Western Dumayna, 7km north of the rebel stronghold Qusayr, May 2013. Photo: Joseph Eid

Disputes between Russia and the West over arming warring sides in Syria yesterday dimmed prospects for peace talks that were also clouded by disarray among President Bashar al-Assad's political foes.
The European Union finally agreed Monday to lift its embargo against arming Syrian rebels, after tough talks that exposed sharp differences between Britain and France, champions of the move, and their more reluctant partners.
However none of the 27 European member states intends to send any arms to the rebels in the coming months, for fear of endangering a US-Russia peace initiative for Syria.
As Western nations debate what action, if any, they should take on Syria, Assad's main allies - Russia, Iran and Lebanon's Shia Hezbollah group - have been closing ranks behind him.
Russia, which has protected Assad diplomatically since the Syrian uprising erupted in March 2011, said it would deliver an advanced S-300 air defence system to Damascus despite US, French and Israeli objections, arguing that it would help deter "hotheads" intent on intervention in the conflict.
Moscow also accused the European Union of "throwing fuel on the fire" and directly damaging the chances of convening a peace conference by letting its own arms embargo on Sria expire.
"We think this (S-300) delivery is a stabilising factor and that such steps in many ways restrain some hotheads... from exploring scenarios in which this conflict could be given an international character with participation of outside forces," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.
The S-300s can intercept manned aircraft and guided missiles and their delivery could improve Assad's chances of retaining power. Western nations criticise such arms deliveries in much the same terms as Moscow assails weapons supplies to rebels.
Israel's defence minister said the air defence missiles had not yet left Russia, but hinted at military action if they were delivered.
Despite their differences, the United States and Russia are trying to convoke an international conference next month to end a 26-month-old conflict that has killed more than 80,000 people and threatens to ignite wider Middle Eastern confrontations.
But the opposing sides remain far apart on whether Assad should play any role in any political transition - and the main Western-backed opposition has not even said if it will attend.
Fighting in Syria has intensified on several fronts in recent weeks and is spilling dangerously into Lebanon, whose Hezbollah guerrillas now openly fight alongside Assad's forces.
On the ever more volatile Lebanese-Syrian border, gunmen killed three Lebanese soldiers at a checkpoint in the Bekaa Valley before fleeing toward Syria, Lebanese officials said.
Assad's government, whose forces have been staging fierce offensives on rebel strongholds around Damascus and the border town of Qusair, has named representatives for the peace talks Washington and Moscow hope to convene in Geneva in June.
But opposition political factions, let alone the rebel combatants over whom they wield scant control, remain paralysed by internal divisions even after six days of talks in Istanbul.