lifting Syria arms embargo counterproductive: UN

The United Nations has criticized French President Francois Hollande for his proposal to lift an EU arms embargo on Syria, describing it as “counterproductive.”

UN spokesman Eduardo del Buey said on Friday that Hollande’s plan, which allows weapons supplies to Syrian militants is “counterproductive and will not lead to a solution” to the ongoing crisis in the Arab country.

He reiterated UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s opposition to the proposal, saying “President Hollande knows what the secretary’s views are.”

Ban has repeatedly opposed to a military solution to the Syrian crisis, which has claimed over 70,000 lives and displaced nearly one million others.

“What the Syrian people desperately need at this time are real solutions to the crisis that is tearing their nation apart,” Ban said in January 7.

French President Francois Hollande and British Prime Minister David Cameron, who are pushing for the embargo to be lifted and trying to supply arms to militants, found little support for their proposal.

During an EU summit in Belgium’s capital city, Brussels on Friday ,the European foreign ministers rejected Franco-British efforts to lift an EU arms embargo on Syria.

European countries, including Germany, Austria and Sweden, say Syria is already awash in guns and needs no more and that a flood of weapons into the country would only escalate the conflict.

London and Paris, however, have hinted that they could take unilateral action to send weapons to the militants operating in Syria if EU leaders continue to support the arms embargo.

EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss the arms embargo again in the Ireland’s capital city of Dublin next week.Britain has threatened to veto a forthcoming vote to extend the embargo.

The 27-member bloc imposed an arms embargo against Syria, which is applied to both the Syrian government and the opposition, in April 2011 and it is scheduled to remain in effect until May, when it will either be renewed or lifted.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of Army and security personnel, have been killed in the violence.

The Syrian government has said that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and that a very large number of the militants operating in the country are foreign nationals.

Several international human rights organizations have accused foreign-sponsored militants of committing war crimes.