EU divided on removing the Arms Embargo on Syria

London and Paris impose a collective strategy review, for now Italy is not taking sides
Next week in Dublin it will be discussed among Foreign Ministers

Syria is dividing Europe, imposing a new deliberation on how to put an end to the current crisis in the Middle East. There will be time to decide but the situation is complicated, complicated enough to put the issue at the top of the list on the agenda for the day for the Heads of State and governments of the EU countries, and then in the informal meeting of Foreign Ministers scheduled for next week in Dublin. They want to avoid a reprieve in a moment when France and Great Britain are pushing to remove the arms embargo in opposition to the Assad regime and the rest of the EU prefers to maintain a line of caution. The crisis is not only local but regional: it is feared that an untimely action could destabilize the Middle East, tainting Libya, Turkey and Iran. “We operate within boundaries of common defense policy and we want to continue to operate in this way,” said Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council. For this reason “we have already mandated the Foreign Ministers to seek a common position during the informal meeting next week” in Dublin.

At the moment France and Great Britain are in a minority position and an agreement seems far off. If the EU finds common ground, Italy will search for a position that in any case would avoid a rift with the 27 countries. Mario Monti (due to institutional obligations that required his presence in Rome with the President of the Council) and the Minister of Foreign Affairs (dealing with the diplomatic incident with India involving the 2 Marines) were not at the debate in Brussels; neither the administration nor the Foreign Affairs office are able to furnish an official declaration on the topic of debate in course at this time.