British Foreign Secretary William Hague has said that arming Syrian rebels cannot be ruled out.
Hague’s comment came after Syrian president Bashar al-Assad attacked Britain in an interview with the Sunday Times.
"We do not expect an arsonist to be a firefighter," Assad said in the interview.
"To be frank, Britain has played a famously unconstructive role in our region on different issues for decades, some say for centuries... The problem with this government is that their shallow and immature rhetoric only highlights this tradition of bullying and hegemony...
"How can we ask Britain to play a role while it is determined to militarise the problem? How can we expect them to make the violence less while they want to send military supplies to the terrorists?"
Speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, William Hague said an aid package, due to be announced in parliament next week, will not include arms, but this he could not "rule anything out for the future".
"If this is going to go on for months or years and more, tens of thousands of people are going to die, and countries like Iraq and Lebanon and Jordan are going to be destabilised, it is not something we can ignore," he said.
"The message to him is that we, Britain, are the people sending food and shelter and blankets to the help the people driven from their homes and families in his name.
"We're the people sending medical supplies to try and look after people injured and abused by soldiers working for this man.
"I think this will go down as one of the most delusional interviews that any national leader has given in modern times."
