According to new reports, the Saudi and Qatari governments are sending additional weapons to the Free Syrian Army (FSA) this week, having transported them by way of Turkey to the northern Syrian border. The extra armament comes as the FSA has repudiated the UN ceasefire and launched several major attacks against government forces.

The fighting has reached a level where UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous says that Syria is now in a state of full-scale civil war, adding that the regime has lost “some large chunks of territory” including several cities.

Previous instances of the Saudis and other nations arming Syria had come with claims that the US was helping with the smuggling of weapons across the border. There was no similar claim this time, though the US was predictably up in arms about reported arms shipments on the other side.

In this case it was the Russian government, which has reportedly sent new attack helicopters to the regime. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that the helicopters harmed the prospect for peace in Syria and were an escalation, though at this point it seems that the ship has already sailed on negotiation and both sides are gearing up for a proxy war, with the West and the Saudis backing the FSA and Russia and Iran backing the regime.