Miguel Medina / AFP - Getty Images, file

A rebel fighter from the Al-Ezz bin Abdul Salam Brigade takes part in a training exercise at an undisclosed location near Jabal Turkmen in Syria on April 24.

BRUSSELS -- Britain and France are free to supply weapons to Syrian rebels fighting President Bashar Assad from August, after attempts to renew an EU arms embargo on Syria failed on Monday.

After a marathon negotiating session in Brussels, EU governments failed to bridge their differences and let a ban on arming the opposition expire, with France and Britain scoring a victory at the expense of EU unity.

Britain and France have made a commitment not to deliver arms to the Syrian opposition "at this stage," an EU declaration said. But EU officials said the commitment effectively expires on Aug. 1.

The refusal of London and Paris to go along with the arms embargo could have caused the collapse of all EU sanctions against Syria, embarrassing the EU and handing a victory to Assad.

Slideshow: Syria uprising

A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.

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However, EU ministers managed to avert that by agreeing to reinstate all of the restrictions except for the arms embargo on the rebels.

EU sanctions on Syria that will remain in place include asset freezes and travel bans on Assad and senior Syrian officials, as well as curbs on trade, infrastructure projects and the transport sector.

London and Paris have argued for months that Europe must send a strong signal of support for rebels fighting Assad by allowing EU arms deliveries, even though they say they have not decided yet to actually supply arms.

But they ran into strong opposition from other EU governments, led by Austria and Sweden, which argued that sending more weapons to the region would increase violence and spread instability.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the EU meeting had effectively ended the EU's arms embargo on the Syrian opposition.

"While we have no immediate plans to send arms to Syria, it gives us the flexibility to respond in the future if the situation continues to deteriorate," Hague told reporters.

London and Paris were seeking to increase the opposition's leverage in planned U.S. and Russian co-sponsored peace talks expected next month by raising the prospect they could supply arms to the rebels if the political process made no headway.

Slideshow: The lives of Syrian rebels

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People resisting the army of President Bashar al-Assad in northern Syria cope with loss and prepare for fighting.

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The debate has gained urgency because of military gains by Assad's troops and allegations of chemical weapons use.

But while a number of member states softened their opposition to amending the EU arms embargo and said they could back a compromise, Britain was unyielding in the talks, diplomats said.

"The British didn't give an inch," one diplomat said.

Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said he regretted it had not been possible to find a compromise with Britain and France.

The EU's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, sought to repair any damage to the bloc's image, saying Monday's decision did not mean the EU had lost the capacity to "have a common policy."

"What it does mean is there is a recognition that in trying to establish how best to support the people of Syria, countries will want to make some decisions (on their own)," she told reporters.

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Wael Hamzeh / EPA

Supporters of the Salafist Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir take part in a rally showing solidarity with the Syrian people in Beirut, Lebanon, on Feb. 8.

Syria warned it may strike at rebels hiding in neighboring Lebanon if the Lebanese army does not act, the state news agency SANA said on Friday, the second anniversary of the civil war.

Syria's Foreign Ministry told its Lebanese counterpart late on Thursday that a "large number" of militants had crossed Lebanon's northern border into the Syrian town of Tel Kalakh over the past two days, SANA said.

"Syria expects the Lebanese side to prevent these armed terrorist groups from using the borders as a crossing point, because they target Syrian people and are violating Syrian sovereignty," the diplomatic cable said.

It said Syria's "patience is not unlimited," even though "Syrian forces have so far exercised restraint from striking at armed gangs inside Lebanese territory."

Fighting near the border resulted in a large number of casualties, SANA said, before the gunmen retreated into Lebanon.

Lebanon has a policy of "dissociation" from the two-year civil war in Syria but officials say they feel their country is increasingly at risk of being dragged into a conflict that the United Nations says has killed 70,000 Syrians.

Threat to Lebanon's existence
U.N. refugee agency chief Antonio Guterres said on Friday that the Syrian conflict threatens Lebanon's existence.

"The international community should recognize that the Syrian crisis represents an existential threat to Lebanon and should show Lebanon ... much stronger support than has happened until now," he told reporters in Beirut.

Lebanon, a nation of 4 million, fought its own devastating civil war from 1975 to 1990 and has sectarian tensions among Christians and Sunni and Shiite Muslims that have been heightened by the fighting in Syria.

Tensions between Lebanese groups that support the Syrian opposition and those that support Syrian President Bashar Assad have been intensifying and have sometimes turned violent.

The International Committee of the Red Cross appealed to foreign powers Friday to press combatants in Syria to halt attacks on civilians and aid workers, saying all sides were violating the Geneva Conventions. 

"Many atrocities against civilians have been reported or witnessed over the past two years, and we have also seen indiscriminate attacks against civilians and the targeting of health-care personnel and aid workers," said Robert Mardini, head of ICRC operations for the Near and Middle East. 

Meanwhile, European Union governments rejected a Franco-British push on Friday to lift an EU arms embargo to allow weapons supplies to Syrian rebels, voicing fears this could spark an arms race and worsen regional instability.

France and Britain found little support for their proposal to ease the embargo at an EU summit in Brussels, EU diplomats said, although they asked the bloc's foreign ministers to look again at the issue next week.

"Nobody really is interested (in lifting the embargo)," an EU diplomat said. "There is no prospect of change any time soon."

EU governments want to support the rebels, but many expressed fears on Friday that allowing weapons to flow to them could lead to arms falling into the wrong hands -- especially Islamist militants in the rebel ranks -- and lead Assad's backers to step up arms deliveries to his government.

European Council President Herman van Rompuy said leaders had asked their foreign ministers to look at the issue "as a matter of priority" at a March 22-23 meeting in Dublin. 

Reuters

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