Syria: David Cameron backs down from saying he wants to arm rebels The EU's 27 foreign ministers, chaired by Lady Ashton, will discuss the embargo on arming the Syrian rebels at a meeting in Dublin next week amid deep divisions between European governments. Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, Chancellor Merkel expressed reservations over the policy of arming the rebels and said she was surprised that Britain and France had "changed their minds" since a meeting of EU foreign ministers last discussed the issue two weeks ago. We have a number of concerns. One has to ask if it doesn't fan the flames of the conflict," she said. What is important is to act together as Europeans, just the fact that two have changed their minds is not enough for 25 to follow suit. The German leader also revealed that Lady Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief and a Labour peer, had spoken out against Mr Cameron with "convincing arguments" against lifting the arms embargo. "Lady Ashton said Iran and Russia were looking for the development to resume arms exports to Assad," said Mrs Merkel. In an apocalyptic contribution to the debate, Lady Ashton told EU leaders leader that arming the rebels would be the pretext for Iran to act more aggressively in the Middle East. She warned that the policy would lead to Tehran stepping arms supplies to Hezbollah, jeopardising peace in the Lebanon and threatening the safety of United Nations soldiers on the Golan Heights. "Lady Ashton said it could inflame conflict across a fragile region and there was a real risk it would destabilise the Middle East," said an EU diplomat. The experience in Libya and Mali also shows us that the weapons end up in the wrong hands. Britain dismissed Lady Ashton's opinions as irrelevent."She may well have her views but she is there to act as a broker among member sates, the people who make decisions are the 27 leaders," said a British source. Francois Hollande, the French President, spoke in support of Mr Cameron and said he had received guarantees from the Syrian opposition that any future arms delivered to them would end up in the right hands. "In terms of delivering weapons ... to have the best answer the opposition must give all necessary guarantees," he said. It's because we have been given those that we can envisage the lifting of the embargo. We have the certainty on the use of these weapons.