UK claims it hasn’t armed Syria foreign-backed rebels

Hague claimed on Monday that his country remains committed to amending the EU arms embargo on Syria but said that the move is necessary “in order to increase the pressure” on Bashar al-Assad government.
 
“We have not sent arms to any side during the conflicts of the Arab Spring. No decision has been made to go down this route,” he added.
 
This comes as British paper the Daily Star quoted British government sources on Sunday March 10 as saying that London has dispatched a secret weapons consignment to the foreign-backed militants, including assault rifles, light machine guns, grenades, anti-tank missiles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and ­ammunition.
 
The report said the cache, big enough to arm some 1,000 terrorists, is stashed in Syria’s neighboring countries, ready to be delivered “within hours”, if an EU arms embargo is lifted.
 
The report added that Britain had already sent considerable amounts of weapons to Syrian militants through Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
 
British Prime Minister David Cameron had said back in March that his government mulled ignoring the EU arms embargo on Syrian in order to pave the way for sending weapons to the militants fighting against the government.