LONDON—Canada has no plans to revisit its decision not to send military aid to Syrian rebels, something U.S. President Barack Obama is reportedly considering.

Senior Canadian officials travelling with Prime Minister Stephen Harper on a trip to Europe said Ottawa has not changed its position on the issue despite the rapid advances the Assad regime has made in its efforts to crush rebel forces in Syria.

The Harper government has repeatedly expressed concerns about the possibility of weapons supplied to the rebels ending up in the hands of Al Qaeda-linked groups that are part of the forces challenging Syrian President Bashar Assad.

“Arming unnamed people whose identities we do not know and whose objectives we do not understand, I think is extremely risky,” Harper said last month.

Harper is likely to find himself immersed in intense discussion of what to do about Syria over the next week. He will be meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron in London on Thursday and with French President François Hollande in Paris on Friday. Both countries have opened the possibility of sending military aid to the Syrian rebels.

And Harper will be encountering Obama at the G8 Summit in Northern Ireland on June 17-18.

On Wednesday, Obama was to meet with advisers as part of urgent White House talks on whether to provide military aid to those batting Assad’s forces. Some reports say the U.S., worried that the rebels will be wiped out unless they receive more outside support, could decide to provide arms within days.

But Canadian officials said Ottawa is sticking with the position expressed by Harper in May, when he warned the Americans to be “extraordinarily cautious in jumping into” the fray in Syria with lethal arms.

Assad appears to be gaining ground against the rebels with the help of support from Iran and Lebanese guerilla group Hezbollah. At the same time, the uprising against Assad, which has claimed the lives of about 80,000 people, is increasingly threatening to drag in regional neighbours, including Canada’s close ally, Israel.

Harper arrived in London Tuesday night and on Wednesday will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior and take part in a roundtable discussion with business people. Later in the day he has an audience with Queen Elizabeth.

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