The British government intends to step up help to the Syrian opposition, William Hague has revealed.

As diplomatic efforts falter, underlined by the resignation of the UN envoy Kofi Annan on Thursday,
the foreign secretary disclosed that Britain has been helping elements
of the Syrian rebels in a "practical and non-lethal way", adding: "And
we will help them more."The foreign secretary spelled out the
government's refusal to rely solely on diplomacy in the face of the
stalemate on the UN security council.Speaking on the BBC Radio 4
Today programme, Hague said Annan's decision to quit because of the
failure of what he had said had become "mission impossible" over Syria
was a "bleak moment" both for the people of Syria and for the
diplomatic effort by the international community as the world witnesses
the most violent manifestation of the Arab spring."Diplomacy has not worked so far, diplomacy has so far failed the people of Syria," said Hague.

"That doesn't mean that we give up on diplomacy.

Hague's comments come a day after it Reuters reported
that US president Barack Obama had signed an order authorising US
intelligence support for Syrian rebels seeking to overthrow the Assad
government.It is claimed Obama's order broadly permits the CIA
and other US agencies to provide support that could help the rebels oust
President Bashar al-Assad.Hague declined to comment on any
potential involvement of UK intelligence but said Britain for its part
has been offering support help in terms of communication and "matters of
that kind"."I do not ever comment on intelligence matters but I
can say that we are helping elements of the Syrian opposition, but in a
practical and non-lethal way," he said."We have helped them with communications and matters of that kind, and we will help them more."

He
added: "We will help them in this situation, given the scale of death
and suffering and the failures of the diplomatic process, we will over
the coming weeks increase our practical but non lethal support to the
opposition."Pressed on what shape this support will be, Hague
said it would be revealed in the coming weeks, but stressed it would not
involve sending arms. "Above all we will be sending the humanitarian
assistance that the people of Syria so desperately need," he said."We've
seen hundreds of thousands cross borders, Britain is the second largest
donor to the United Nations funds which are used to try and look after
those people. We may have to do more and certainly the rest of the world
needs to do more in that regard and we will do still more to isolate
the Assad regime from its remaining associates, or friends, in the world
from other parts of the Arab world, we are achieving considerable
success, and do still more to document the human rights abuses that are
taking place so that one day justice can be done."Hague paid
tribute to the six-point plan for peace in Syria that Annan had put
forward, which he said had "every merit" and was "absolutely the right
plan", but that the UN security council "had not handled things well".Announcing
his resignation, Annan cited "finger-pointing and name-calling" in the
security council as one of the reasons for his decision to step down.Russia
and China have blocked resolutions in the security council to threaten
the Assad regime with global sanctions if it fails to halt the bloodshed
in the 17-month uprising. The
prime minister, David Cameron, met Russian president Vladimir Putin in
London on Thursday but appears to have made little progress on the
issue.Writing in the Financial Times, Annan laid out his frustration at the impasse on the security council.

"For
a challenge as great as this, only a united international community can
compel both sides to engage in a peaceful political transition. But a
political transition is difficult, if not impossible while all sides,
within and without Syria, see opportunity to advance their narrow
agendas by military means. International division means support for
proxy agendas and the fuelling of violent competition on the ground."That
is why I have consistently sought to help the international community
to work together to end this destructive dynamic and to focus the minds
of parties on the ground in a political process."But he went on
to outline how, despite international backing for authorised UN
military observers to deploy in Syria, sustained international support
did not follow when the ceasefire unravelled.He lay down the gauntlet to the permanent members of the security council to show courage and leadership.

While
it was clear that Assad must leave office, "the greater focus must be
on measures and structures to secure a peaceful longterm transition to
avoid a chaotic collapse"."This is the most serious issue. The international community must shoulder its share of responsibility."

Hague
said he agreed with every words of the article, and insisted that while
Britain had tried to offer Annan the support he needed, "the United
Nations security council has not been able to handle it well… though of
course the security council did agree on what should happen."He
added: "We believe it is not only necessary to press for the plan that
Kofi Annan put forward – and it will continue to be necessary even
without Kofi Annan to do that – but that the security council needs to
back that up with the threat of consequences, and it was over that
point that Russia and China vetoed the resolution that we and the great
majority of the security council supported two weeks ago."The UN
general assembly is expected to approve a resolution on Friday
denouncing the use of major military hardware against opposition forces
and demanding chemical and biological weapons not be deployed.But
the text tabled by Saudi Arabia has been stripped of calls for the
resignation of Assad and for wider sanctions amid pressure from
countries such as Russia, which said it was "unbalanced".

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