EU, Britain at odds over ways to end Syrian violence

British defense officials are pushing to end the arms embargo on rebel fighters in Syria as a means of speeding a path toward peace.

But European Union officials aren’t so enthusiastic with the idea. According to The Associated Press, several EU ministers questioned on the way to a meeting about Syria said they wouldn’t support the plan. The unnamed ministers did not have permission to speak on the record about closed-door meetings.

Britain has been lobbying for weeks to open the doors for rebel fighters to receive weapons from outside nations, as a way of fighting President Bashar Assad’s regime, AP reported.

An estimated 70,000 people have been killed in the Syrian uprising since March 2011, according to U.N. statistics.