end of the embargo<\/a> on shipment of arms to rebels,
\n saying that this step “gives the flexibility of specific EU
\n member states to support the opposition as they see fit,”<\/i>
\n acting State Department deputy spokesperson Patrick Ventrell said
\n at the briefing on Tuesday.\n<\/p>\n\n At the same time, for President Bashar Assad this should be a
\n message “that support for the opposition is only going to
\n increase\u201d,<\/i> Ventrell said.\n<\/p>\n
\n As the United States has so far provided only non-lethal aid to
\n Syrian rebels, Ventrell said the new decision \u201callows others
\n to continue to accelerate that assistance to the opposition.”<\/i>\n<\/p>\n
\n The State Department has stressed that it will not change its
\n policy based on the EU\u2019s decision.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ventrell reiterated America\u2019s position, saying that it opposes
\n Russia selling anti-aircraft missiles to the Assad regime.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe think that’s a mistake. They’ve described it as fulfilling
\n existing contracts,\u201d<\/i> he said, then assuring that the US
\n government will \u201ccontinue to work with them [Russia].”<\/i>\n<\/p>\n
\n The comments came after Russia criticized the EU lifted its arms
\n embargo, with diplomats branding the move as an “example of
\n double standards”<\/i>. Russia insists that its own sale of arms
\n to the Syrian government may help restrain warmongers.\n<\/p>\n
\n However, it has neither confirmed, nor denied \u201cthe status of
\n those shipments\u201d<\/i> Russia is carrying out under a contract
\n signed with Syria several years ago.\n<\/p>\n
\n Moscow has been asserting its right to ship S-300 batteries,
\n maintaining that it does not violate international law.\n<\/p>\n
\n Russia\u2019s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov lambasted the EU\u2019s latest
\n move as \u201can illegitimate\u201d<\/i> decision.\n<\/p>\n
\n “This is an illegitimate decision, in principle, to discuss
\n seriously on official level the issue of supplying or not
\n supplying arms to non-state actors is contrary to all norms of
\n international law,\u201d<\/i> Lavrov said.\n<\/p>\n
\n He recalled negotiations on the text of the Global Arms Trade
\n Treaty, which read that \u201carms should be supplied to
\n governments and only with requirement of an end-user
\n certificate\u201d.<\/i>\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI don\u2019t know which end-user certificate the Syrian opposition
\n can give to exporters from Europe,\u201d<\/i> Lavrov added.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Syrian government has slammed the easing of the EU\u2019s embargo
\n as an \u201cobstruction of efforts to resolve the conflict in the
\n country peacefully\u201d.<\/i>\n<\/p>\n
\n The country\u2019s Foreign Ministry has accused the Union of giving
\n \u201csupport and encouragement to terrorists by providing them
\n with weapons in clear violation of international law and the UN
\n Charter.\u201d<\/i>\n<\/p>\n
\n Despite Britain and France having made a commitment not to
\n deliver arms to the Syrian opposition “at this stage,”<\/i> the
\n UK\u2019s Foreign Secretary William Hague has not ruled out arming the
\n rebels before August 1, saying that Britain now has the right to
\n do so.\n<\/p>\n
This article originally appeared on: RT<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US has welcomed the EU\u2019s decision to lift an arms embargo on Syria, as a show of \u201cfull support” for rebels fighting against President Assad. At the same the White House has opposed Russian sales of S-300 missiles to Syria, calling it \u201ca mistake\u201d. The State Department has called for an end of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-36916","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36916\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}