The spectre of an international arms race threatened to escalate the conflict in Syria yesterday after the European Union lifted an embargo on arming rebel forces and Russia announced it was supplying more military hardware to Bashar Al Assad's regime.
The decision yesterday by the summit of EU foreign ministers in Brussels also prompted Moscow to cast doubt on the prospects for a peace conference in Geneva next month.
Bowing to the intensity of assertions by Britain and France that Mr Al Assad must be forced, if necessary, into meaningful negotiation, the ministers decided against renewing the arms embargo that expires at midnight on Friday.
But the commander of the main western-backed Free Syria Army (FSA) said yesterday he was "very disappointed" that there would be no immediate weapons shipment of weapons to his outgunned fighters. Russia's reaction to the EU decision was swift and critical.
"This does direct damage to the prospects for convening the international conference," said Sergei Ryabkov, Russia's deputy foreign minister.
He also announced that Russia would go ahead with deliveries of S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to the Syrian government, claiming that this was a move calculated to discourage foreign intervention in the crisis.
Mr Ryabkov, quoted by the Russian news agency Itar-Tass, described the arms as a "stabilising factor" that could deter "hotheads" from becoming involved. This was taken by many observers to be a thinly veiled warning to Israel following its air raids on convoys allegedly bound for Hizbollah.
Each development could significantly raise the firepower in a two-year civil war has already killed more than 80,000 people in Syria.
The stakes were raised even before the EU meeting with the declaration from the Lebanese-based Islamist group Hizbollah that is was committing itself to defending the Assad regime.
Gen Salim Idris, who commands the FSA, criticised the West for its reluctance to immediately arm the rebels.
"They lift the arms embargo and I don't know what they are waiting for," said Gen Idris. "We don't have any patience any more."
Gen Idris said his allies needs to act quickly to help the rebels in Qusayr, where Hizbollah fighters are participating in a regime offensive.
"Time is a very important factor now in the battle in Qusayr," he said. "When they wait for a week, maybe Qusayr will be under the control of Hizbollah."
"If this kind of behavior of Hizbollah continues ... I can't control the units of the FSA anymore. They will start to target the bases of Hizbollah inside Lebanon's territory," he said.
Some analysts see the non-renewal of the EU embargo - which does not affect economic sanctions aimed at weakening Syria - as levelling the resources of combatants.
But David Hartwell, a Middle East specialist with the defence and security publishers IHS Jane's, said rebels should not expect an immediate influx of weapons. He said that the UK and France had agreed to wait until after a proposed Geneva conference before deciding whether to start the supply of arms.
"The EU move will have little immediate impact on the battlefield, especially around Al Qusayr, and, at this stage, the decision has more diplomatic than military weight," he said. "Moreover, there are no guarantees of weapons to the opposition, a weakness the Syrian regime will continue to exploit in its ongoing offensive in the west of the county."
Mr Hartwell said that the result was less an endorsement of lifting the embargo than a reflection of lack of consensus on Syria.
The EU was bitterly divided on the issue, with demands for maintaining the arms embargo led by Austria. France and especially Britain were accused of intransigence by diplomats from other member states amid suspicions that weapons provided by the EU could end up in the hands of anti-western forces.
Britain enraged some ministers by threatening to veto the entire sanctions package.
Opposition figures in Syria found themselves torn between encouragement and dismay at the EU decision.
Louay Safi, a spokesman for the Syrian National Coalition, told Agence France-Presse it was "definitely a positive step", but one that could be too little, too late.
Others felt the EU had not done enough to bolster their resistance to the government forces. "Why wait until August? Why wait another two months?" a rebel commander asked AFP. "So that the Syrian people continue to be subjected to genocide?"
But the British foreign secretary, William Hague, was upbeat. He said the EU had been denying to rebels the right to defend themselves when they were "having every weapon that's ever been devised dropped on them".
"This decision gives us the flexibility in the future to respond to a worsening situation or the refusal of the Assad regime to negotiate," he said.
Mr Hague stressed the importance of Europe sending a clear signal to Al Assad's regime that it had to negotiate seriously, with all options remaining on the table, if it refused.
He said the EU partners had also agreed that any nation that planned to supply arms to the SNC in the future must be strictly for the protections of civilians.
The EU's foreign policy head, Catherine Ashton, said when reading the ministers' joint statement, that members had agreed not to "proceed at this stage with the delivery" of equipment banned by the expiring embargo.
The EU's foreign affairs council would review this position before August 1, in light of fresh developments including the US-Russia peace initiative, she added.
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
* With additional reporting by Associated Press