US will send nonlethal aid directly to Syrian rebels (+video)
Secretary of State John Kerry said that some groups the US doesn't support are gaining more influence with the rebels in the absence of greater Western help.
(Page 2 of 2)
A US State Department official said that Washington wanted to help the opposition maintain "the institutions of the state" in areas under their control, reports Al Jazeera.
Skip to next paragraph
Latin America Editor
Whitney Eulich is the Monitor's Latin America editor, overseeing regional coverage for CSMonitor.com and the weekly magazine. She also curates the Latin America Monitor Blog.
-
In Pictures: Crisis Continues in Syria
Recent posts
-
05.17.13
Russia boosts its naval presence in Syria, sends regime new missiles (+video) -
05.16.13
Afghanistan blast targets NATO convoy, kills at least 6 (+video) -
05.15.13
I spy, you spy: Russian officials downplay Fogle incident -
05.14.13
Syrian rebel's video surfaces amid intensified pressure for action on Syria -
05.13.13
A flurry of diplomacy over Syria, but will it amount to progress?
Subscribe Today to the Monitor
"We're talking about basic services, water, electricity – but also [to] build up new institutions in terms of governance, rule of law, police," State Department deputy acting spokesman Patrick Ventrell told reporters.
Another potential reason behind the US policy shift in Syria is to send a message to Mr. Assad that rebels have the support and capability to ultimately succeed, providing an impetuous for negotiating a political transition, reports the Times.
“He needs to know that he can’t shoot his way out of this,” Kerry said of Assad.
According to AP:
The U.S. will be sending technical advisers to the Syrian National Coalition offices in Cairo to oversee and help them spend the money for good governance and rule of law. The advisers will be from non-governmental organizations and other groups that do this kind of work.
Attendees at today’s meeting also condemned countries providing weapons and support to Assad, a separate Reuters story reports. Iran is suspected of supplying weapons and military support to the regime, and Russia has openly noted its provisions of military equipment.
“The United States’ decision to take further steps now is the result of the brutality of superior armed force propped up by foreign fighters from Iran and Hezbollah,” Kerry said.
Earlier this week Kerry met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Berlin, raising hopes for the possibility of bringing Assad and rebel groups to a negotiating table, reports The Christian Science Monitor. Russian experts say Russia is making strides in that regard, and that it’s now the US’s duty to convince rebel groups that the best solution is engaging in talks.
"I think it's clear that Russia can deliver the Assad regime on this point, and bring them to the table for talks with the rebels," says Andrei Baklitsky, an expert with the PIR Center, an independent Moscow-based security think tank.
"Russian diplomacy has been pretty consistent on the need for such talks and Moscow is ready to do its part. But I would think it's the US that has a problem here. If Washington is going to change its approach, and come out in favor of negotiations, it may find itself unable to bring the rebels to the table. The Syrian rebels are very fragmented, have little common ground, and some of them are completely intransigent. Some of them didn't even want to go to Rome, to sit down with their friends, much less engage in talks with the Assad regime," he says.
According to the United Nations, an estimated 70,000 people have died in the two-year Syrian conflict. In addition, UN official António Guterres said the UN refugee agency has registered 936,000 Syrians across the Middle East and North Africa, which is almost 30 times as many people as registered in April last year, reports Al Jazeera. The number of refugees is expected to exceed 1 million within a month.
Previous
Follow Us