The U.S. State Department said on Friday that many individual countries including the U.S. have taken unilateral steps to bar weaponry into Syria, Xinhua reported.
Acknowledging that Syria is not under any UN Security Council arms embargo, department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the weaponry may be used by the government against its own people, and the U.S. has called for all countries that continue to trade and supply weapons with Syria to stop.
"Obviously, many individual countries, the United States included, have taken unilateral steps to bar weaponry into Syria," she said at a regular news briefing.
"As you know, in the context of our conversation about a UN Security Council resolution, among the things that we might be seeking would be stronger efforts to control this kind of thing into Syria, because obviously we all have concerns that the Syrian regime is using it against its own people," she said.
The spokeswoman said that the U.S. had raised its concerns with both Russia and Cyprus, as a Russian-owned ship has landed in Syria with military munitions aboard. Cyprus was the last port of call for the ship.
"And we are continuing to seek clarification as to what went down here," she added. "But I'm not in a position to really say definitively what was aboard."
Syria was plunged into turmoil in mid-March when anti- government protests broke out. Violence continues there despite the presence of the Arab League monitors since Dec. 26.