Puzzled how Hague can 'push through' lifting of arms embargo...

[ipadquietly]

...with support from France and none of the other EU countries.

Don't they vote on things like this?

Well, Britain and France are Europe's 2 largest arms producers.....

Nothing is "pushed through" in Europe. It's much more democratic than you'd think.

Can someone explain this in plain English please?
I don't get why they had to allow the embargo to be lifted if they wanted to keep the rest of the sanctions.

'Spindelegger warned the entire sanctions regime would unravel at midnight on Friday in a European debacle, with 27 countries then having to impose new national sanctions regimes. When the meeting resumed at 10pm, he predicted, the ministers would focus on issuing a bland statement aimed at the media and trying to mask the deep divisions.
Hague took the highly unusual step of wielding Britain's veto to block a consensus, forcing the meeting to lift the embargo to save the rest of the sanctions, which are extended for a year from Saturday.
"We were risking not having any sanctions by the end of the day. So, I am counting my blessings. At least 90% of the sanctions are still there," said Frans Timmermans, the Dutch foreign minister.
But Hague was crowing: "We have brought an end to the EU arms embargo on the opposition. This decision gives us the flexibility in future to respond to a worsening situation or the refusal of the regime to negotiate."'

The full article

(Sorry, I know I'm being really thick )

This all smacks of history repeating itself: we and the US armed the mujahideen in Afghanistan, those guns were used against us. Now we're going to arm rebels in Syria and I'm willing to bet these will be used against us. I wonder if Hague can be charged in the future as an accessory to murder. One certainly hopes so.