By TIM SHIPMAN, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR
Britain is to send equipment to help the opposition oust Syrian dictator Bashar Assad after William Hague said there was ‘no limit on what resources we can provide’.
The Foreign Secretary announced plans for a dramatic escalation of support for the rebels as Syrian government forces launched yet another bloody attack on the rebel city of Homs, killing 50 more.
Mr Hague ruled out British military action but said the UK is poised to provide ‘strategic communications’ equipment to help different rebel groups work together against the ‘murderous’ regime in Damascus.
Panic: A hospital in the rebel-held city of Homs under attack yesterday
Pledge: Foreign Secretary William Hague has announced the UK is poised to provide 'strategic communications' equipment to help different rebel groups work together against the murderous' regime in Damascus
Diplomatic sources compared the situation to the war in Libya and said Britain will seek to provide radios and mobile phones and work with Turkey and other neighbouring nations to allow rebels to broadcast radio programmes into Syria.
The UK will also back fresh European Union sanctions later this month designed to ‘fracture the regime’.
That will see a new crackdown on activities by the Syrian Central Bank and imposing travel bans and asset freezes on regime officials to encourage them to abandon Assad.
Mr Hague recalled the British ambassador to Syria yesterday for talks as violence erupted again, which prompted the U.S. to withdraw all its embassy staff for security reasons.
Yesterday Syrian forces bombarded Homs, in the west of the country, killing 50 people in a sustained assault on several districts.
That followed a massacre of more than 200 people by tanks and artillery on Friday night, bringing the total death toll since last March to more than 5,400.
Yesterday’s assault saw government troops deploy multiple rocket launchers, as well as tanks and machine guns.
Eyewitnesses said government forces deliberately targeted a makeshift medical clinic and residential areas.
Local man Hussein Nader said: ‘They want to drive the Free Syrian Army out. Rockets are falling seconds apart on the same target.’
Activists said an explosion ripped through an oil pipeline feeding a main refinery in Homs, the second attack on the pipeline in a week.
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They added that the opposition-held town of Zabadani, near the Lebanese border, also came under fire. With violence raging, Syria’s ambassador in London was called into the Foreign Office for a carpeting.
In a statement to the Commons, Mr Hague denounced Russia and China after they vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning the violence.
Standing guard: A member of the Free Syrian Army watches over anti-regime protesters holding a demonstration in the city of Idlib
Defiance: Protesters dance on the streets during a demonstration in Idlib, Syria
Anti-regime protesters play drums and wave a revolutionary flag during demonstrations in Idlib
Western diplomats are furious with Russia and China, arguing that they bent over backwards in rewriting the resolution so it could not be construed as a precursor to military action – and they still refused to sign it.
Mr Hague accused Russia and China of ‘betraying the Syrian people’. He said: ‘The human suffering in Syria is already unimaginable and is in grave danger of escalating further.
‘They chose to side with the Syrian regime and implicitly to leave the door open to further abuses by them. They did so while President Assad’s tanks were encircling Homs and shells were pounding the homes of Syrian civilians.’
Mr Hague said the Assad regime cannot survive. ‘This is a doomed regime as well as a murdering regime,’ he told MPs. ‘There is no way it can recover its credibility internationally or with its own people.’
Casualties: YouTube footage shows the bodies of three people reportedly killed in shelling on Rastan in the central province of Homs.
Hons: A destroyed armoured military vehicle lies abandoned in the streets following clashes between President Bashar al-Assad forces and the Free Syrian Army
In a bid to shame Russia and China, the UK and other countries are planning to pass a resolution condemning the violence in the UN’s General Assembly, where vetoes cannot be used.
The UK will also beef up a diplomatic team under Francis Guy, who is an unofficial ambassador to the Syrian opposition, to ‘intensify’ those contacts.
The team will work to get the Syrian opposition groups to agree a common platform, just as rebels did in Libya.
The Foreign Secretary said: ‘There is no limit on what resources we can provide.
We have provided training in documentation of human rights abuses, in strategic communications and so on. We may be able to do more in the future.’
Mr Hague also announced plans for a new contact group to help the Arab League plan to end the bloodshed
It will see the EU, the Arab League and other countries come together to ‘co-ordinate intensified diplomatic and economic pressure on the regime, and to engage with Syrian opposition groups committed to a democratic future’.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2097480/Well-help-rebels-overthrow-Syrian-murderers-Hagues-warning-dictator-Assad-escalation-violence.html#ixzz1leRa5Iok
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