{"id":107083,"date":"2014-01-29T15:05:38","date_gmt":"2014-01-29T15:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=107083"},"modified":"2014-01-29T15:05:38","modified_gmt":"2014-01-29T15:05:38","slug":"us-congress-secretly-approves-sending-small-arms-moderate-syrian-rebels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/latest-news\/us-congress-secretly-approves-sending-small-arms-moderate-syrian-rebels\/","title":{"rendered":"US Congress Secretly Approves Sending Small Arms to \u2018Moderate\u2019 Syrian Rebels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Congressional lawmakers have quietly authorized sending small arms, an assorted variety of rockets, and financial backing to so-called \u201cmoderate\u201d rebels fighting in Syria\u2019s civil war, according to a new report.<\/em><\/p>\n

American and European security officials told Reuters that the US will provide anti-tank rockets, but nothing as deadly as shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles (known as MANPADs), which can be used to bring down military or civilian aircraft.<\/p>\n

Legislators voted in closed-door meetings to fund the opposition forces through September 30, the end of the US government\u2019s fiscal year. The decision is an about-face from congressional debates last year, in which the same committees were reluctant to supply arms over concerns that American weapons would wind up in the hands of radical Islamists fighting in the region, the Al-Qaeda-backed Al-Nusra being the most well known.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\"A <\/p>\n

A destroyed street is seen in the Salaheddin neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo as clashes continue between forces loyal to Syria\u2019s President Bashar al-Assad and opposition fighters on January 27, 2014. (AFP Photo \/ Shahba Press)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Now, though, those concerns appear to have lessened. Exactly when Congress approved the funding is not known, yet the sources speculated that it was signed in a classified section of a defense appropriations bill that was approved in December.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Syrian war is a stalemate<\/em>,\u201d said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA analyst and current foreign policy advisor to US President Obama with the Brookings Institution. \u201cThe rebels lack the organization and weapons to defeat Assad; the regime lacks to loyal manpower to suppress the rebellion. Both sides\u2019 external allies\u2026are ready to supply enough money and arms to fuel the stalemate for the foreseeable future<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A boy rides on a tricycle along a damaged street in the besieged area of Homs (Reuters \/ Yazan Homsy)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Despite the uncertainty remaining around the conflict, Western officials have asserted in recent weeks that \u201cmoderate\u201d rebels have strengthened their positions in the south of Syria and have begun excluding Al-Qaeda sympathizers. Extremists are known to be in control of rebel forces in the north and east, however.<\/p>\n

US and British officials temporarily suspended \u201cnon-lethal aid<\/em>\u201d (a category that includes communications equipment and transportation vehicles) in December, although officials now say they hope to resume providing assistance to the Supreme Military Council (SMC), which oversees rebel forces favored by the West.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope to be able to resume assistance to the SMC shortly, pending security and logistics considerations<\/em>,\u201d one source told Reuters. \u201cBut we have no announcement at this time<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

News of the funding comes as the Syrian government and the external opposition in Geneva have reached an agreement that would see humanitarian aid enter the besieged city of Homs, and would allow women and children to leave its war-ravaged areas.<\/p>\n

What makes the deal dubious, however, is that it\u2019s not yet clear how it will be implemented on the ground. Currently, the Syrian government is promising \u2014 voiced on Sunday by Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad \u2014 that women and children can leave Homs safely. Another question is how rebels inside the city besieged by the army will react.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the armed terrorists in Homs allow women and children to leave the old city of Homs, we will allow them every access. Not only that, we will provide them with shelter, medicines and all that is needed,<\/em>\u201d he said, as cited by Reuters. \u201cWe are ready to allow any humanitarian aid to enter into the city through the arrangements made with the UN<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

US State Department spokesman Edgar Vasquez said that an evacuation is not a legitimate option because of how dire the need for aid is.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe firmly believe that the Syrian regime must approve the convoys to deliver badly needed humanitarian assistance into the Old City of Homs now<\/em>,\u201d Vasquez said. \u201cThe situation is desperate and the people are starving<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The results of a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland \u2014 where government officials sat across the negotiating table from representatives of the opposition on Monday \u2014 is so far unclear. Each side pledged its willingness to continue discussions, though progress so far has been nearly nonexistent.<\/p>\n

United Nations envoy Lakhdar Brahimi told reporters after the meeting Monday that even though the talks \u201chaven\u2019t produced much<\/em>,\u201d another session was scheduled for Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce again, I tell you we never expected any miracle, there are no miracles here<\/em>,\u201d he said in a news conference. \u201cMy expectation from this conference is that the unjust war will stop. But I know this is not going to happen today or tomorrow or next week<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reprinted<\/a> with permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congressional lawmakers have quietly authorized sending small arms, an assorted variety of rockets, and financial backing to so-called \u201cmoderate\u201d rebels fighting in Syria\u2019s civil war, according to a new report. American and European security officials told Reuters that the US will provide anti-tank rockets, but nothing as deadly as shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles (known as MANPADs), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":107084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-107083","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-latest-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}