WASHINGTON - Canada has no interest in arming pro-democracy rebels in Syria if a fragile ceasefire fails to take hold in the Middle Eastern country, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said Thursday in the U.S. capital.
"We're prepared to provide a substantial amount of support on humanitarian (fronts) ... but I don't support Canada, the Canadian taxpayer, arming the opposition," Baird said after two days of meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and G8 foreign ministers.
Such a move might be counter-productive anyway, he added.
"There is a real concern that the more the opposition is armed, the more brutal and tough the government will be. And as disgraceful as the conduct of the (Bashar) Assad regime has been, they still have plenty of tools in their arsenal that they haven't used."
The Syrian situation, including the tenuous truce between government forces and rebels, was the key topic of discussion in the G8 meeting with Clinton, Baird said.
"We're obviously appalled by the violence and our first goal is to try to end the violence; we have a little bit of room for some optimism," he said.
"We're going to watch it on an hour-by-hour basis. Over the past 10 days, we've seen hundreds, if not thousands, of people killed. Since 6 a.m. (Thursday) Syrian time, there has been a significant decline in the violence. By no means, though, can this be considered a success at this time."
International envoy Kofi Annan told the UN Security Council on Thursday that despite the ceasefire, the Syrian government has yet to acquiesce to the council's demands that it withdraw troops and heavy weapons from cities and towns.
U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, the current council president, said Annan told the council that "Syrian forces and weapons remain in and around population centres." Rice urged Security Council members to demand that Assad pull back his troops.
Annan has also asked to council to quickly authorize the deployment of an advance U.N. team to monitor the ceasefire ahead of the deployment of a larger mission.
Syria's UN Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari, meantime, said his government is committed to the success of Annan's peace mission, insisting "we have already complied" with demands to withdraw troops and equipment.
Russia, a member of the G8, has backed the Assad government since the outbreak of violence last year that's left an estimated 10,000 people dead. The Russians and the Chinese have repeatedly hindered efforts by the international community to condemn the government crackdown in Syria.
Baird said there had been "a good exchange of views" with the Russians during the discussions with Clinton, but added both Russia and China would soon need to explain why they won't support the UN Security Council's condemnation.
"We're encouraged that we do now have a cessation of violence in Syria," Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Thursday in New York. "We hope it holds. Everybody needs to behave with maximum prudence for that to happen."
