‘No arms’ for rebels
Only food, medicine: US
ROME, Feb 28, (Agencies): The United States said on Thursday it will for the first time give non-lethal aid to Syrian rebels and more than double its aid to Syria’s civilian opposition, disappointing opponents of President Bashar al-Assad clamouring for Western weapons. The United States cast the aid as a way to bolster the rebels’ popular support. It will include medical supplies, food for rebel fighters and $60 million to help the civil opposition provide basic services like security, education and sanitation.
US Secretary of State John Kerry announced the new steps after a meeting of 11 mostly European and Arab nations within the “Friends of Syria” group.
The aid did not appear to entirely satisfy the Syrian National Council opposition, a fractious Cairo-based group that has struggled to gain traction inside Syria, especially among disparate rebel forces.
“Many sides ... focus (more) on the length of the rebel fighter’s beard than they do on the blood of the children being killed,” Syrian National Coalition President Moaz Alkhatib said at an appearance with Kerry and Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi.
In what analysts described as a sign of disappointment, Syria’s political opposition has postponed talks to choose the leader of a provisional government, two opposition sources told Reuters in Beirut.
Opposition leaders hoped a Saturday meeting in Istanbul would elect a prime minister to operate in rebel-controlled areas of Syria, threatened by a slide into chaos as the conflict between Assad’s forces and insurgents nears its second anniversary.
While one source said the meeting might happen later in the week, a second source said it had been put off because the three most likely candidates for prime minister had reservations
about taking the role without more concrete international support.
“The opposition has been increasingly signalling that it is tired of waiting and no one serious will agree to be head of a government without real political and logistical support,” said Syrian political commentator Hassan Bali, who lives in Germany.
Bali said the United States and other members of the core “Friends of Syria” nations appeared intent “on raising the ante against Assad but are not sure how.”
A final communique said participants would “coordinate their efforts closely so as to best empower the Syrian people and support the Supreme Military Command of the (rebel) Free Syrian Army in its efforts to help them exercise selfdefence”.
More than 70,000 Syrians have been killed in a fierce conflict that began with peaceful anti-Assad protests nearly two years ago. Some 860,000 have fled abroad and several million are displaced within the country or need humanitarian assistance.
The United States has given $385 million in humanitarian aid but US President Barack Obama has so far refused to give arms, arguing it is difficult to prevent them from falling into the hands of militants who could use them on Western targets.