Austrian FM against arms deliveries to Syrian opposition

Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger says that sending more weapons to Syria would only lead to military escalation. He was commenting at a meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers in Brussels on Monday, where there was a discussion whether or not to aid the Syrian opposition forces with arms deliveries. France, Britain and Italy were all pushing for the weapons embargo on Syria to be loosened. High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy for the European Union, Catherine Ashton, said that the weapons embargo issue was not actually on the schedule for discussion. Spindelegger said that there was bound to be more discussion on the matter, but he did not think it was sensible to send more weapons. Instead, there should be more support for peace talks. The Austrian foreign minister also pointed out that some minority groups, such as Christians or Kurds, were not suitably represented in the Syrian opposition. This was why there was still so much support for President Bashar al-Assad.