‘US helping Syria rebels to get arms’
US: The United States is helping bring more and better weapons
to Syria's rebels, including anti-tank weaponry, for their fight against
President Bashar al-Assad regime,The Washington Post said Wednesday.
President Barack Obama's administration insisted it was not directly
supplying the weapons or providing funding, with Gulf states paying for
the new arms, the Post said, citing US and foreign officials.
But Washington has stepped up links with the rebels and regional
militaries allied with them, playing a role in the rebel's foreign
support network, according to the report. “We are increasing our
nonlethal assistance to the Syrian opposition, and we continue to
coordinate our efforts with friends and allies in the region and beyond
in order to have the biggest impact on what we are collectively doing,”
a senior State Department official told the Post.
If true, the US administration's move to increase contact with the
rebels and boost information-sharing with Gulf states who back them
would mark a shift in policy for the Obama administration, which has so
far resisted overt support for the armed groups battling Assad forces.
But US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland insisted US
policy had not changed, saying the Post had “stretched its sourcing.”
“The United States has made a decision to provide nonlethal support to
civilian members of the opposition,” she said, pointing to shipments of
medical and communications equipment.
“But with regard to any assertions with regard to lethal (aid), we
are not involved in that,” Nuland added.
“We don't think that adding fuel to this fire is the right way to
go.” The spokeswoman did not explicitly indicate whether the United
States was urging allies to avoid providing weapons to Syrian rebels.
On Tuesday, US officials said Washington deplored the escalating
violence in Syria, after a bomb exploded in front of a UN convoy and
reports surfaced of a new massacre by government forces.
Syria's anti-regime revolt has entered its 15th month of relentless
violence that has killed more than 12,000 people amid growing fears that
a UN-backed peace plan will fail. AFP |
