Echoing earlier comments by his foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, Mr. Hollande said: “We are ready to support the rebellion, so we are ready to go this far. We must take our responsibilities.”
Mr. Hollande said that Britain and France were in agreement. “We cannot allow a people to be massacred by a regime that for now does not want a political transition,” he said.
The European Union pact on the embargo and on sanctions against Syria must be renewed every three months. France is moving for the next review to be held this month, rather than in May. “We have to go very fast,” Mr. Fabius said, urging that the union try to shift the balance of forces in Syria in favor of the opposition before many thousands more people die.
 The rebels are clamoring for antiaircraft and antitank weapons. A European supply line could alter the dynamics of the two-year Syrian civil war, which is believed to have cost the lives of 70,000 people, without ending the Assad family’s decades of rule.
French and British officials have said that only once the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, understands that he is losing the battle will he agree to negotiate a political resolution with the opposition. And there is a sense that the Syrian Army is beginning to erode, offering a greater opportunity for change.
In February, the embargo was renewed despite British concerns, with Germany and Sweden especially arguing against escalating the civil war. But Britain did win agreement to relax the embargo to allow nonlethal but quasi-military aid, like armored vehicles. The issue is likely to come up in Brussels at the two-day meeting of European Union leaders, but their focus will be on the economy.
Mr. Hollande met separately with Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain before the summit meeting to discuss the Syria embargo, British officials said. The arms embargo is backfiring, one of the officials said. “It doesn’t stop those aiding Assad; it does stop E.U. countries and others helping those against whom Assad is waging a brutal and terrorizing war,” the official said.
Mr. Fabius warned that France and Britain might act unilaterally if their European partners disagreed. Asked on France Info radio whether the two would arm the opposition if there was no agreement, Mr. Fabius said only that France was “a sovereign state” and that the two countries would jointly act “to lift the embargo.”
“We cannot accept that this current lack of balance, with on one side Iran and Russia delivering arms to Bashar, and on the other rebels who cannot defend themselves,” Mr. Fabius said. “Lifting the embargo is one of the only ways that remain to change the situation politically.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Cameron said his nation would continue to adhere to the embargo for now, but that it might reconsider if its partners did not agree to lift the embargo. “It is not impossible that we’ll proceed the way we see fit,” he said.
Britain and France pushed for intervention in Libya, and France recently intervened in Mali without European Union agreement. But they seem to be lobbying their European Union colleagues rather than declaring independence of European Union consensus.
The French public has been shaken by the bloody, vicious and seemingly stalemated civil war in Syria, with which France has historical ties, and there are new concerns about the stability of Lebanon, as thousands of refugees continue to pour out of Syria.
The Syrian government threatened Thursday to launch attacks on Lebanese territory to stop Lebanese anti-Assad militants from entering Syria, demonstrating how difficult it has become for Lebanon to stay out of the war consuming its larger, closely connected neighbor. The threat — the most pointed warning yet to the Lebanese government, which is divided on the Syrian conflict — was delivered in a diplomatic note that Syria’s ambassador to Lebanon, Ali Abdul Karim Ali, presented to Lebanese authorities, Syria’s state news agency, SANA, reported.
(Chasity M.)