Arab summit opens with calls to arm Syria rebels

KUWAIT CITY –– Syria's opposition called for "sophisticated" arms at an Arab summit in Kuwait Tuesday while Saudi Arabia stressed the need for a change in military balance to "end the impasse".

UN peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, however, insisted on the need for a "political solution" to the three-year conflict, urging an "end to the supply of arms to all parties".

Opposition Syrian National Coalition chief Ahmad Jarba repeated calls on the international community to supply rebels with "sophisticated weapons" as the two-day summit opened.

"I do not ask you for a declaration of war," said Jarba, urging Arab leaders to put pressure on the international community to comply with pledges to supply arms.

Saudi Crown Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz, whose country is a key backer of the Syrian rebellion against President Bashar Assad, said the international community was "betraying" the opposition by failing to arm them and leaving them as "easy prey".

A solution to the conflict, in which regime forces have recently made significant advances, requires a "change in the balance on the ground to end the impasse", he said.

National Coalition spokesman Louay Safi said rebels needed urgently "anti-aircraft missiles" to fend barrel bombs which activists say regime forces have been raining down on fighters and civilians alike.

The conflict in Syria, which in mid-March entered a fourth year, has killed more than 140,000 people and displaced millions.

Jarba said a decision not to hand over Syria's seat in the Arab League to the opposition sends a wrong message to Assad, telling him to continue "to kill".

"Let me say quite frankly that keeping Syria's seat empty... sends a clear message to Assad that he can kill and that the seat will wait for him," he said.

The Syria government's brutal repression of protests which erupted in March 2011 resulted in its suspension from the 22-member Cairo-based Arab League.

Its seat was allocated to the National Coalition at last year's Arab summit in Qatar, but has not been handed over because the opposition must meet legal requirements, said Arab League chief Nabil El Arabi.

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, in his address to the summit that wraps up Wednesday, accused the Syrian government of "buying time" by "pretending to accept a political solution."

While the Syrian conflict is taking centre stage at the summit, a regional rift over Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood has been kept off the agenda.

The dispute pits Qatar against Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates and has apparently affected the level of summit, the first to be hosted by Kuwait.

Kuwait said 13 heads of state were attending the meeting, with low-profile representation from its Gulf partners.

Kuwait Emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah told the summit that Arab rifts are threatening Arab aspirations and insisted that "we are required to resolve these disputes... and achieve unity."

Efforts to settle the inter-Arab rift appear to have been placed on the back burner, with officials ruling out any compromise being struck in Kuwait.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy told reporters it was not possible to forge a compromise with Qatar during the summit because "the wound is too deep".

On the Palestinian issue, Arab leaders are expected to call for $100 million in monthly aid for the Palestinian Authority and to reject demands by Israel that Palestinians recognise Israel as a Jewish state.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, fresh from talks with US President Barack Obama in Washington last week, was to brief his Arab counterparts during the summit.