Arab League OKs arms to Syrian rebels

The Arab League has told its members they are free to ship arms to Syria’s rebels: [A] final statement issued at the end of a meeting of the ministers in Cairo said they had "stressed the right of each state according to its wishes to offer all types of self defense, including military, to support ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

The Arab League has told its members they are free to ship arms to Syria's rebels:

The Arab League has told its members they are free to ship arms to Syria’s rebels:

[A] final statement issued at the end of a meeting of the ministers in Cairo said they had "stressed the right of each state according to its wishes to offer all types of self defense, including military, to support the resilience of the Syrian people and the Free (Syrian) Army."

Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby told a news conference that the ministers had invited the opposition Syrian National Coalition – an umbrella body for anti-Assad political and rebel groups – to occupy the seat of Syria at the League.

The Arab League decision is the second rhetorical boost for the policy of arming Assad’s opponents in the last few days. During meetings in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry all but endorsed third-party arms transfers to certain rebel groups. Last month, Britain and a few other states unsuccesfully pushed to amend the European Union’s broad arms embargo on Syria. 

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

Tag: Syria

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