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.
Legislators voted in closed-door meetings to fund the opposition forces through September 30, the end of the US government’s 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.
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.
“The Syrian war is a stalemate,” said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA analyst and current foreign policy advisor to US President Obama with the Brookings Institution. “The rebels lack the organization and weapons to defeat Assad; the regime lacks to loyal manpower to suppress the rebellion. Both sides’ external allies…are ready to supply enough money and arms to fuel the stalemate for the foreseeable future.”.................http://rt.com/news/congress-approves-weapons-syria-secretly-270/
28/1/14
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Related:
Syrie: cesser les livraisons d'armes aux belligérants (Ban Ki-moon)
U.S. arms flowing to ‘moderate’ Syrian rebels....
Bürgerkrieg: USA liefern leichte Waffen an syrische Rebellen....
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New supplies of weapons to Syrian conflict area lay groundwork for supporting terrorists - Lavrov...
ReplyDeleteNew supplies of weapons to Syria provide solid preconditions for supporting terrorists in the region, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"New supplies of lethal and non-lethal weapons to the Syrian conflict area lay groundwork for supporting terrorists," Lavrov told journalists in Brussels on Tuesday.
Inter-Syrian talks proceeding sluggishly, Russia surprised at Jarba's absence at 1st round - Lavrov
Russia was surprised that Ahmad Jarba, the president of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, did not attend the first round of the inter-Syrian negotiations in Geneva, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"The inter-Syrian negotiations are proceeding sluggishly. We are surprised to see that Jarba did not appear at the first round," Lavrov said following an EU-Russia summit in Brussels on Tuesday............Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_01_28/New-supplies-of-weapons-to-Syrian-conflict-area-lay-groundwork-for-supporting-terrorists-Lavrov-8677/
28/1/14
Damasco ha calificado la reactivación del suministro de armas por parte de EE.UU. a la oposición siria de un intento de impedir que Ginebra 2 tenga éxito, según señaló el vicecanciller sirio Faisal Mekdad.....
ReplyDelete"Esto puede ser considerado solo un intento directo de oponerse a cualquier solución política en Siria mediante el diálogo de las partes", afirmó Mekdad. "Quienes participan en Ginebra 2 de nuestro lado condenan tal medida", agregó el vicecanciller en declaraciones a Itar-Tass.
"Una decisión de esta índole estos días, cuando tiene lugar la conferencia, es algo inaudito", agregó el diplomático. "La conferencia Ginebra 2 fue convocada en parte por iniciativa de EE.UU. con el fin de detener la violencia y los actos de terrorismo en Siria. Por lo tanto, estamos sorprendidos por este paso, que es claramente contrario al espíritu de la Convención de Ginebra".
Las declaraciones de Mekdad surgen luego de que se conociera que el Congreso de EE.UU. ha autorizado secretamente el envío de armas, una surtida variedad de cohetes y apoyo financiero a los llamados rebeldes "moderados" que combaten en la guerra civil de Siria, según un nuevo informe.
Mekdad dijo además que no ha visto el supuesto plan de resolución anunciado por la oposición siria, en el que al parecer ofrecen entre otras cosas retirar el asedio a tres pueblos cerca de la ciudad de Alepo.
El vicecanciller reiteró que las conversaciones se reanudarán este miércoles 29 de enero.
Este martes también se dio a conocer que el Gobierno sirio pidió a la ONU garantías, para que el convoy con ayuda humanitaria destinado a socorrer a los habitantes de la asolada ciudad de Homs, llegue sin contratiempos y que no caiga en manos de los rebeldes.
Texto completo en: http://actualidad.rt.com/actualidad/view/118306-siria-eeuu-ginebra-2-suministrar-armas-oposicion
28/1/14
Demanding Assad's resignation is counterproductive - Lavrov .....
ReplyDeleteRussian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called the approach of those focusing on the need for Syrian President Assad to resign not constructive.
"The desire to immediately start discussing personalities, like saying that Assad must go and let's talk who will govern Syria, doesn't help [the negotiations]. This is an absolutely counterproductive approach," Lavrov told journalists at a news conference in Brussels.
Lavrov thanked UN/Arab League Envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi for insisting on "the prevalence of the logic of small steps." Russia is not clinging to Assad as a person, Lavrov said. "We are not friends of Assad's family or any of the high-ranking Syrian leaders. We are friends of the Syrian state," he said. "It's necessary to move step-by-step rather than think about Assad's fate," he said.
Voice of Russia, Interfax
Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_01_28/Demanding-Assads-resignation-counterproductive-Lavrov-3509/
28/1/14
Obama affirms support for Syrian opposition....
ReplyDeleteU.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday reaffirmed American support for Syrian opposition groups attempting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, on the provision that they also reject terrorism.
Speaking in his annual State of the Union speech on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., Obama added that Syrians deserve a future that is free of dictatorship, terror and fear.
“In Syria, we will support the opposition that rejects the agenda of terrorist networks,” he said.
Obama said it was American diplomacy and the threat of force which led to the plan to eliminate Syria's deadly stockpile of chemical weapons.
“American diplomacy, backed by the threat of force, is why Syria’s chemical weapons are being eliminated,” he said.
Negotiations between the Syrian regime and the opposition in Geneva were stalled on Tuesday amid mutual accusations and the government’s anger over the resumption of U.S. aid to the opposition.
American officials said Monday the U.S. has restarted deliveries of nonlethal aid to the Syrian opposition, more than a month after al-Qaeda-linked militants seized warehouses and prompted a sudden cutoff of Western supplies to the rebels.
Al-Qaeda and Guantanamo
But speaking on America's arch-foe al-Qaeda, Obama clarified that the U.S. must remain cautious against the terror network as it takes root across the Mideast and North Africa.
"America can no longer expect to be safe by pursuing overseas terror networks through war - or even through widespread airstrikes that have been a hallmark of the U.S. fight against extremists," he added.
Obama also called on Congress to lift restrictions on transferring al-Qaeda and Taliban detainees held at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and finally close the prison..............http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2014/01/29/Obama-.html
29/1/14
Syria peace talks unravel after 'US military aid' accusations...
ReplyDeleteThe fourth day of the Geneva 2 peace negotiations has been halted earlier than scheduled following a fierce exchange of accusations from both the opposition and the Syrian government over the alleged resumption of US military aid to the rebels.
The talks were cut short by the UN-Arab League mediator Lakhdar Brahimi following the morning session when the opposition delegation rejected an official complaint note presented by the Syrian government delegation criticizing the resumption of US aid.
“We believe this is not the best present to the Geneva conference,” said Faisal al-Mikdad, Syria’s deputy foreign minister, calling the American decision “another manifestation” of US support for “terrorist groups” in Syria.
“This proves again that the United States is not interested in the success of this process, and we believe the US has to desist and stop its claims that it is interested in the success of this conference,” he told reporters following the meeting.
The statement of condemnation said that the US, by choosing to arm rebels, made a “provocative decision” in violation of the Security Council resolution no. 1371, as weapons supplied will end up in the hands of extremists such as al-Nusra Front and the Islamic Front. The statement noted that the timing of this decision was truly surprising, as it serves “as a direct attempt to obstruct any political solution in Syria.”...............http://rt.com/news/geneva-talks-halted-tuesday-325/
29/1/14