London: Some European countries are expected to break with Washington and start supplying the Syrian rebels with weapons in the next few months, the representative of the Syrian opposition in Britain has told the Guardian.

The National Coalition’s London representative, Walid Saffour, predicted that by the next meeting of the western and Arab Friends of Syria group in Turkey, which is due to take place in late spring or early summer, “there will be a breakthrough that will end the restrictions of the European countries”.

“This would be for the ammunition we require, the quality weapons we need to deter the Syrian regime from using aeroplanes and Scud missiles to bomb villages and bakeries,” Saffour said. “We on the ground are advancing steadily but we are suffering from a lack of ammunition. We expect that to change at the next Friends of Syria meeting in Istanbul.”

The European Union formally changed its arms embargo on Syria on Thursday to allow the supply of armoured vehicles, non-lethal military equipment and technical aid to the opposition. The move came as the new US secretary of state, John Kerry, made his first trip to a Muslim nation since taking office, visiting Ankara, where he met Turkish leaders to discuss the Syrian civil war.

While Saffour did not name the countries he expected to supply arms, the British government, which took the lead in pushing for the relaxation of the sanctions, is expected to act swiftly in reaction to the new EU rules. William Hague is due to make a statement to parliament this week detailing the new equipment and training the UK will give the rebels. The new aid is expected to include civilian vehicles reinforced to provide protection against shelling of a kind the British government is already supplying to UN aid workers operating in Syria.

On British insistence, the EU embargo will come up for review again at the beginning of June and the UK is expected to push for a further relaxation in what can be provided to the opposition if there is no let-up in the two-year-old conflict, in which more than 70,000 people are estimated to have died.

Speaking at the Friends of Syria meeting in Rome on Thursday, Hague stressed that military aid was possible in the future.

“That will be an important decision, of course, and has its own risks, and that is why we haven’t done that so far. But I don’t rule that out,” the foreign secretary said.

A British official said: “We are going to keep on raising the pressure on the [Al] Assad regime. The Friends of Syria meeting in Rome was not the end of a process. It is the beginning of a process.”

Saffour, the National Coalition’s representative, said: “If the EU embargo doesn’t change, then some of the EU countries will change their policy if not openly, then quietly.”

He said US officials had also told the coalition that the White House policy of providing non-lethal aid only would come under review in the next few months, as new members of Barack Obama’s administration such as Kerry and the defence secretary, Chuck Hagel, have entered the internal debate.

Guardian