Operational funding to the Free Syrian Police Force (FSP) is to stop in September, with government sources, cited in the Guardian, admitting the Access to Justice and Community Service (AJACS) program has become too difficult to deliver.<\/p>\n
READ MORE:\u00a0Mad Dog Mattis, the destroyer of Raqqa, frets about losing moral authority<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n A former foreign correspondent for the Guardian, Jonathan Steele, told RT that while the group, largely based in the northern opposition-held Idlib province, was unarmed, they still carried out \u201cpatrols,\u201d<\/em> adding that \u201cthey got equipment and salaries from the British government.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n While humanitarian support is set to continue, all operation assistance will stop. Steele stated that the UK had provided the FSP with \u201ctraining and tactical support,\u201d<\/em> adding that \u201csome of the training was happening in Turkey.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Read more<\/p>\n Britain\u2019s aid spending in 2017-18 has been estimated at \u00a3152 million (US$194 million), a third of which has been delivered to Idlib province, on the Turkish border. The area, where the FSP operates, is a stronghold of the Al-Qaeda proxy group Al-Nusra Front, now rebranded as Tahrir al-Sham.<\/p>\n The Foreign Office and the Department for International Development (DfiD) denied that the move had anything with the BBC\u2019s revelations in December 2017 \u2013 that the FSP were under the control of Al-Nusra Front.<\/p>\n The BBC Panorama program, titled \u2018Jihadis You Pay For\u2019, claimed FSP officers in Idlib province had to be approved by Al-Nusra.<\/p>\n After the program\u2019s broadcast, the Foreign Office suspended access to the AJACS scheme\u00a0for\u00a0the FSP. A DfID source, cited in the Guardian,\u00a0stated that the defunding decision had nothing to do with Panorama’s claims.<\/p>\n Following the defunding of the FSP, Steele said the UK is \u201cnot funding very much now I think, this was quite a large part of their budget, though the White Helmets are funded still, both in terms of salaries and equipment. They\u2019re in a limited number of areas because obviously the opposition doesn\u2019t control much of Syria anymore.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n READ MORE:\u00a0\u2018Unique\u2019 op to eliminate militants in Syria\u2019s southern provinces completed \u2013 Moscow<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Steele stated that Britain is \u201cfollowing the lead of the Americans,\u201d<\/em> who have also cut back their support for Syrian opposition groups. \u201cBritain are doing the same, I think in part it\u2019s genuinely to save money, but at the back of their minds it\u2019s the realisation that these groups have no real future, they\u2019ve lost the war, it\u2019s just a matter of time before they\u2019re completely defeated. So it\u2019s pouring money down a drain.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n On Friday, the US announced the end of its funding for Syria stabilization projects, citing increased contributions from its allies. The move comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin called for Europe to pledge funds to help rebuild Syria, as the civil war finally looks like it\u2019s coming to an end.<\/p>\n Like this story? Share it with a friend!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The UK will finally end its support of a Syrian opposition group accused by the BBC of being under an Al-Qaeda proxy\u2019s control, in a move that shows the UK realizes that \u201cthese groups have no real future\u201d in the Syrian conflict. Operational funding to the Free Syrian Police Force (FSP) is to stop in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":374152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-374151","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374151","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=374151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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