By AFP
CAIRO: Egypt’s Foreign Minister Mohamed Amr on Thursday warned of regional consequences should the crisis in Syria “explode,” during talks with UN-Arab League envoy to Syria Kofi Annan, his spokesman said.
Amr said that an “explosion” of the situation in Syria “would not only have internal consequences but will spread to the whole region,” Amr Roshdy told reporters.
The foreign minister was holding talks in Cairo with Annan, who was recently named special envoy to Syria and is due to fly to Damascus on Friday.
On Wednesday, Amr warned that arming rebel fighters in Syria, mainly Syrian army defectors, would “lead to an escalation in the military conflict and spark a civil war in Syria.”
Some Arab countries, such as Qatar and regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia, have spoken in favor of arming the rebels.
The opposition Syrian National Council has said it wants to organize arms deliveries to the rebels and announced a “military bureau” to coordinate and serve as a conduit for weapons from abroad.
The United Nations says more than 7,500 people have been killed since anti-regime protests which gave way to an armed revolt erupted in Syria in mid-March 2011.
