NATO’s chief on Monday said the alliance was opposed to providing arms to the Syrian opposition seeking to counter a regime crackdown, warning that it would fuel a proliferation of weapons in the region. Anders Fogh Rasmussen called for a diplomatic solution and reiterated that NATO, which led the Libya air war that contributed to Moamer Kadhafi’s downfall last year, had “no intention whatsoever to intervene in Syria.” The Syrian opposition has appealed for weapons to fight the year-long bloody crackdown on dissent, but Arab League members, the United States, France and Germany steered clear of those calls at the “Friends of Syria” meeting in Turkey on Sunday. “I don’t think the right way forward would be to provide any group with weapons,” Rasmussen told a news conference, voicing support for the diplomatic efforts led by UN special envoy Kofi Annan.
