The countries that were a week ago trying to get both sides to the table for peace talks to end the Syrian Civil War are now arguing over taking the brakes off of arms sales to each warring side.

The United States is voicing its approval of the European Union ending its arms embargo on the Syrian Rebels.  That was hardly a unanimous decision:  The UK and France effectively blocked the central European countries who want to keep their distance from the Syrian Civil War from renewing the arms blockade.  Without a deal, the embargo expires at week’s end, and the UK and France will be free to sell weapons to opponents of Bashar al-Assad.

This is not sitting well with Damascus’ allies in Moscow who are condemning the EU and US for throwing more fuel on the fire. 

“This is an illegitimate decision, in principle, to discuss seriously on official level the issue of supplying or not supplying arms to non-state actors is contrary to all norms of international law,” said Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Russia is also accusing the west of a double standard, by opposing Moscow’s long-planned sale of S-300 missiles to Syria while claiming that arming the rebels would somehow push all sides to the negotiating table.  Moscow points out its government-to-government missile sales do not violate International Law.

Neither France or the UK have announced if there are any weapons transfers in the works, although British Foreign Secretary William Hague has not ruled out arming the rebels before 1 August.

But having won international approval, Hague may not have support at home.  His fellow Tory MP and former Defense Minister John Redwood told the BBC, “There’s a very strong feeling that many Conservative backbenchers have, that whilst we hate the Assad regime as much as the Government, we think intervention might make it worse rather than better.”

Another Tory MP Julian Lewis notes that the Syrian rebels contain several factions allied to al Qaeda. 

“In short I don’t think it’s a good idea for Britain to arm the opposition,” he said.  “There are a variety of reasons, we’ve just seen some atrocious footage and atrocities are what atrocious governments like Assad’s specialize in.”

By some counts, more than 90 thousand people have been killed in the Syrian Civil War, now in its third year.