Aid pledges haven’t helped rebels
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — A month after the Obama administration pledged more support for Syria’s armed opposition, the government of President Bashar Assad’s position has improved, with U.S. assistance to the rebels apparently stalled and deadly rifts opening among the forces battling to topple the Assad regime.
Government forces appear close to forcing rebels from the key city of Homs after a 10-day offensive, while an al- Qaidalinked rebel group on Thursday assassinated a top commander from the more moderate, Western-backed Supreme Military Council, signaling what one British newspaper dubbed a “civil war within a civil war.”
And that’s only some of the recent setbacks for the Syrian opposition’s two-track struggle toward improved fighting capabilities and greater political legitimacy.
In the United States, political and logistical snags are preventing the distribution of promised military aid, while in Turkey, the exiled civilian Syrian Opposition Coalition remains mired in orga- nizational turmoil.
The coalition’s prime minister, Ghassan Hitto, a naturalized American citizen, resigned his post, days after the group elected a new chairman, Ahmed Assi al Jarba. Hitto and Jarba represent different factions in the organization, one backed by Qatar, the other by Saudi Arabia, with Jarba’s election representing a Saudi victory.
Jarba’s ascendency is also a defeat for the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, which has dominated the exile opposition for years.
The biggest reversals, how- ever, came inside Syria, where areas once solidly under rebel control have begun to slip away.
That has cut into the opposition’s ability to provide aid to hungry, besieged communities — a key part of a strategy to prove it could govern Syria, should Assad fall.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki declined Friday to comment on the status of the aid programs.
She said only that the administration had “taken steps” on that front, and that the U.S. was concerned about the Syrian sieges on Homs and other areas.