DAMASCUS – France raised the prospect Thursday of providing Syria's rebels with defensive weapons in a conflict now said to have cost more than 39,000 lives, but Damascus ally Russia said this would violate international law. The diplomatic maneuvering comes as Syria's army pressed an operation in areas around Damascus to rout rebels who have stubbornly clung to gains made in July, and as fighting raged on northern battlefields. In Paris, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius raised the issue of excluding defensive weapons from the current European Union arms embargo on Syria to help rebels fighting President Bashar Al-Assad's regime. “For the moment, there is an embargo, so there are no arms being delivered from the European side. The issue... will no doubt be raised for defensive arms,” he told RTL radio. “The issue will be raised because the (opposition) coalition has asked us to do so,” he said, adding that “this is something that we can only do in coordination with the Europeans.” “France's position for the moment is to say that we must not militarize the conflict, but it is evidently unacceptable that there are liberated zones and that they be bombarded by Bashar's planes.” On Tuesday, National Coalition chief Ahmed Moaz Al-Khatib called on world powers to arm the rebels with “specialized weapons.” The same day, France became the first Western country to recognize the newly formed coalition as the Syrian people's sole representative. In Moscow, Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said “promises are being made from a number of capitals of massive supplies of modern weapons. Outside help to the opposition waging an armed battle against a legitimate government is a gross violation of fundamental norms of international law.” Lukashevich added that the latest developments, including what he said was rebel refusal to talk with Assad, were “in direct contravention” of the so-called Geneva peace plan championed by former UN negotiator Kofi Annan. US President Barack Obama was cautious about the arms question. “One of the things we have to be on guard about... is that we're not indirectly putting arms in the hands of folks who would do Americans harm,” he said Wednesday. However, he said Washington was encouraged by the new coalition but was not yet ready to recognize it. Meanwhile, the death toll in 20 months of conflict has topped 39,000, a watchdog said Thursday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 27,410 civilians, 9,800 soldiers and 1,359 military deserters had been killed since the uprising began on March 15, 2011. Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said another 543 people who could not be identified needed to be added to the figure, for a total of 39,112. The Observatory relies on a countrywide network of activists and medics in civilian and military hospitals for its toll figures. – Agencies
