WASHINGTON, June 14: After more than two years on the sidelines, President Barack Obama is going to start arming Syrian rebels but that is unlikely to reverse the recent momentum won by the government and its Lebanese Shi’ite Hezbollah allies any time soon.
Obama’s decision to send US weapons to opposition fighters came as the White House announced it had proof that President Bashar al-Assad’s government had used chemical weapons against rebel forces in the civil war.
The US government made clear that even though it was now confirmed that Assad had crossed a chemical weapons “red line” set by Obama, Washington intends to move cautiously – and in concert with its allies – on what steps to take.
With rebel forces desperate for weapons after battlefield setbacks like the fall of the strategic town of Qusair, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, said only that the president had decided to ramp up military support to the opposition both in “scope and scale.”
A US official said this would include sending weapons to the Syrian insurgents. That marks a shift in longstanding US policy against lethal aid, which sought to keep war-weary Washington from being drawn into another conflict in the Middle East.
Obama administration officials have said that any arming of the rebels would likely be limited to small arms and ammunition rather than anti-aircraft weapons, which could have an immediate impact on the battlefield.
The New York Times reported that the supplies, to be coordinated by the Central Intelligence Agency, might include anti-tank weapons.
The arrival of thousands of seasoned, Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters to help Assad combat the mainly Sunni rebellion has shifted momentum in the 2-year-old war, which the United Nations said yesterday had killed at least 93,000 people.
Yesterday’s announcements followed a series of urgent White House meetings on Syria amid mounting pressure at home and abroad for Obama to act more forcefully in the conflict, including a sharp critique of his hesitant policy from former President Bill Clinton. The meetings reportedly exposed divisions among Obama’s aides on the issue.
The White House unveiled what it called conclusive findings on Assad’s chemical weapons, saying intelligence officials believed that 100 to 150 people had died in the attacks.
“Our intelligence community assesses that the Assad regime has used chemical weapons, including the nerve agent sarin, on a small scale against the opposition multiple times in the last year,” Rhodes told reporters.
(agencies)
Follow our WhatsApp channel