Syrian ceasefire caught in crossfire
Political solution preferred, but prospects of that are getting dimmer, officials say
Red Cross seeks ceasefire as rebelheld area of Homs comes under series of daily attacks. Meanwhile, the U. S. hints for the first time it may supply weapons to the rebels.
WASHINGTON — The United States on Tuesday appeared to open the door to arming the Syrian opposition, saying if a political solution to the crisis were impossible it might have to consider other options.
The comments, made by officials at both the White House and the State Department, marked a shift in emphasis by Washington, which thus far has a policy of not arming the opposition and has said little about alternatives.
U. S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet with representatives of some 70 countries in Tunis on Friday for the first “Friends of Syria” meeting to coordinate the international community’s next steps to respond the nearly year- long uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad.
“We still believe that a political solution is what’s needed in Syria,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said. “We don’t want to take actions that would contribute to the further militarization of Syria, because that could take the country down a dangerous path. But we don’t rule out additional measures.”
State Department spokes-woman Victoria Nuland, asked if the United States was shifting its stance on arming the rebels, said Washington did not want to see the violence increase and was concentrating on political efforts to halt the bloodshed.
“That said ... if we can’t get Assad to yield to the pressure that we are all bringing to bear, we may have to consider additional measures.”
The U. S. comments came as Syrian government forces carried out their heaviest bombardment yet on a rebel held suburb of the city of Homs, leading to speculation that after days of artillery and mortar barrages, the army was preparing to send in ground troops. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 68 people were killed by Syrian forces Tuesday, as they blitzed Homs and a village in Idlib province. In the most significant incident, at least 33 people were killed in the village of Abdita in the northwestern province of Idlib, the London- based observatory said.
Another 31 were killed in Homs province, including 21 people who died in “intensive shelling” that targeted Homs city’s Baba Amr neighbourhood, with the Khaldiyeh and Karm alZaytoun districts also attacked
And despite a plea by activists to allow women and children to flee Homs’ besieged Baba Amr neighbourhood, more troops were sent to the outskirts of the restive city, with activists expressing fear a ground assault is imminent.
The International Campaign of the Red Cross called for at least a two- hour daily halt to fighting in Homs to get aid to trapped civilians and to bring out the sick and wounded.
The United States and its allies hope this week’s Tunis meeting will allow them to begin drawing up a plan for Syria after Russia and China vetoed a Western- backed Arab League peace plan at the UN Security Council.
U. S. officials suggest the meeting will focus on ways to increase economic pressure on Assad through additional sanctions and to ramp up humanitarian relief for victims of the repression.
But Arab diplomats have suggested that formal or informal moves to arm the rebels may also be discussed.
Some U. S. politicians such as Republican Senator John Mccain support efforts to arm the Syrian rebels — if not directly by the United States, then by other countries or third parties.
“There are ways to get weapons to people who are fighting against this kind of oppression, we showed that in Libya,” Mccain told reporters on a visit to Jerusalem.
“To somehow sit by and watch this massacre continue without exploring and employing every option that we possibly can to stop it is a betrayal of everything the United States stands for and believes in.”
With both Russia and Iran firmly backing Assad’s government, political analysts say tacit U. S. support for arming rebel fighters could be risky given Syria’s complex ethnic and religious makeup and strategically important position.