EU Summit and Syria

“The sudden Anglo-French move to overturn a European arms embargo on Syria in order to equip the rebels seeking to overthrow the Assad regime has run into a solid wall of resistance at an EU summit, with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, dismissing the policy U-turn and others warning of a regional conflagration from which Iran would emerge the winner… Catherine Ashton, Britain's EU commissioner in charge of foreign and security policy, knew nothing of the change until she read about it in the newspaper, according to senior sources, and responded to the Anglo-French initiative by laying out the "pros and cons" of a lifting of the ban. "There were not any pros," said an EU source.”