British PM Cameron Faces Cabinet Threat of Rebellion in Case Britain Arms Syrian Rebels
Local Editor
British Prime Minister David Cameron currently faces a Cabinet division over Britain playing a leading role in arming the so-called Syrian opposition forces.
At least five Cabinet ministers displayed "serious reservations" regarding any significant move to increase Britain's involvement in the conflict, The British Independent UK daily reported.
Moreover, a growing number of Conservative MPs warned Downing Street that they may rebel against the Government in any Parliamentary vote on the issue.
The daily cited Cabinet sourcesas saying it could take 18 months of arming rebels to force the Syrian Government to the negotiating table, and believed it to be "a bleak assessment which some fear may cause Britain to be sucked into a long military commitment with a highly uncertain outcome."
The ministers have warned that supplying weapons to the so-called Free Syrian Army might only escalate the conflict, killing many more people without any realistic prospect of decisive victory.
For his part, the Foreign Secretary William Hague is said be broadly supportive but concerned about practical difficulties, but the War Secretary Philip Hammond has made it clear that there can be no significant role for British forces in Syria.
Cameron now has to face the reservations of Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, whose party has an effective veto because Britain's Labor Party has indicated it will not support armed intervention.
Furthermore, John Baron, Tory MP for Basildon and Billericay, stated, "Putting more weapons into a civil war can only inflame the violence."
Source: News Agencies, edited by website team
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