U.S. military chief sees more room to boost moderate Syrian rebels

By Phil Stewart

WASHINGTON |(Reuters) - The U.S. military could - if asked - significantly boost American support to Syria's moderate opposition, the top U.S. military officer said, suggesting moderates were still unable to shape events should President Bashar al-Assad fall from power.

General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the comments in a letter to a congressman seen by Reuters on Wednesday, in which he renewed his concerns about the limits of U.S. military power to steer events in Syria's war.

US: Iraq must stop weapons from flowing into Syria

By DEB RIECHMANN
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Secretary of State John Kerry told his Iraqi counterpart Thursday that Iraq must stop weapons from flowing through its airspace to arm the forces of embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad.

U.S. mission in Jordan could last years as Syria war rages: Dempsey

By Phil Stewart

AMMAN |(Reuters) - The top U.S. military officer told American troops in Jordan on Thursday that their mission to help the kingdom contain the fallout from Syria's war would likely last years, as the United States bolsters support for the key regional ally.

US providing $15m to fund for Syrian opposition

By BRADLEY KLAPPER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. is providing $15 million to an international fund to help Syria's opposition govern territory under its control.

The Obama administration says the money will finance reconstruction and provide civilians with water, energy, food and health care.

The administration informed Congress of its intentions Aug. 6. The Associated Press obtained the notification Monday. Germany and the United Arab Emirates have pledged support; the U.S. expects the total fund to surpass $130 million.

The fund is separate from lethal aid Washington has authorized for Syria's rebels and $1 billion in humanitarian aid it has given throughout the two-year conflict. More than 100,000 have died amid fighting between rebels and Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.

For its contribution, the administration took the money from law enforcement funds originally allocated for Pakistan.

Insight - Obama and Syria: a trail of half-steps, mixed messages

 

By Matt Spetalnick and Warren Strobel

WASHINGTON | Sat Jul 27, 2013 1:08am EDT

(Reuters) - As the Syrian civil war deepened and anti-government rebels struggled to unify their fractious forces, the White House early last year quietly convened an elite group of senior policymakers to advise President Barack Obama.
Their unusual mandate: think outside the box on how to push Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power.
Led by a senior member of Obama's National Security Council, the handful of Pentagon, State Department and intelligence specialists came to a consensus: Obama should weigh military options to reinforce his vow that Assad must go.
But with Obama determined to avoid U.S. military intervention, the idea found little traction inside the White House. And by mid-2012, the so-called "small group" - whose very existence was known to only a few within the government - was disbanded, former U.S. officials said.
The group's aborted mission underscores the half-steps and mixed messages that have characterized Obama's Syria policy. After nearly two years of hesitancy in Washington, Assad now has regained the upper hand in the conflict, and the White House last month finally approved providing limited arms for Syrian rebels, a step Obama had long resisted.
Implementing even that decision has proven difficult, as U.S. lawmakers criticize the aid as too little, too late and question Obama's Syria strategy. A House of Representatives committee approved the arms shipments only this week following a month's delay during which members demanded more administration clarity.
Reuters interviews with more than a dozen current and former U.S. officials and foreign diplomats provide new details about Obama's decision-making, guided by his conviction that Assad could be toppled without direct foreign intervention and his reluctance to drag the United States into another Middle East war.
In months of internal debate, he often spurned advice from senior advisers who proposed more robust action as the carnage in Syria intensified, leaving some frustrated.
Administration officials reject criticism that if Obama had acted more forcefully earlier the rebels would have fared better against well-armed government troops.
"There was no way support from outside sources to the opposition would have narrowed the gap when the regime had tanks and warplanes," said one senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Some former officials and many Syria specialists disagree and say the fighting - which has killed an estimated 100,000 people, created 1.8 million refugees and deepened sectarian rifts in Syria and beyond - now threatens wider U.S. interests in the Middle East.
RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY?
Obama's tone emerged early in the conflict. On August 18, 2011, in what was supposed to be a watershed moment, he called for Assad to give up power, a move coordinated with leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Turkey.
"For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside," Obama said.
The declaration, which the White House had resisted making for months, came in response to intense pressure from U.S. allies and the public to break with Assad, as the Syrian leader sent troops and tanks into urban centers to crush swelling civilian protests.
But Obama's statement was preceded by spirited internal debate at the White House.
Some younger advisers, including Samantha Power, now Obama's choice for U.N. ambassador, and communications strategist Ben Rhodes, argued that with Assad's rule looking shakier by the day, the president should get on the "right side of history" and call for him to go, former aides said.
But Middle East policy veterans were more cautious. They argued that uttering what one called the "magic words" about Assad would raise expectations of an active U.S. role.
Steven Simon, the White House's top Middle East adviser, questioned whether Obama should make the statement if Washington was unprepared to follow up with action, according to a source familiar with the discussions.
Simon argued that Assad, backed by the Russians and Iranians, might have greater staying power than it appeared, this source said.
But at the time, Obama was prepared to do little more than combine diplomacy aimed at easing Assad out with economic sanctions - he banned purchases of Syrian oil and U.S. citizens from dealing with the Damascus government.
Some ex-aides now see a critical miscalculation about the strength of the Assad government.
"There was a kind of consensus that, early on ... he couldn't survive all that long," said Dennis Ross, a top White House adviser on the Middle East until late 2011, who argued for both tougher rhetoric and more action. "And there was a kind of presumption that if we just do the economic stuff, we'll make it untenable and that will be sufficient."
Another former senior official lamented the gap between Obama's call for Assad's ouster and plans to enforce the declaration: "When the president says something like this, it's not an advisory opinion. Something's got to be done to make it happen... There was no strategy in place. That was it."
'TELL ME WHERE THEY LEAD'
As Syria's civil war spread in early 2012, with lightly-armed rebel factions outgunned by Assad's army, senior lawmakers such as Republican Senator John McCain began calling on Obama to back the rebels.
Support for that step was not limited to Capitol Hill. At various stages, most of Obama's foreign policy cabinet had advised more robust rebel backing - including two secretaries of state, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry; former CIA chief David Petraeus; and former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.
In an unusual move, Petraeus and Clinton a year ago jointly proposed to the White House that Washington arm rebel groups that had been carefully vetted, minimizing the chances that weapons would fall into the hands of radical Islamist factions. The proposal was backed by Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Martin Dempsey. U.S. intelligence czar James Clapper was aware of it and not opposed, a U.S. official said.
But Obama vetoed the recommendation.
His reluctance underscored what Ross described as the president's skeptical and exacting approach to military intervention, colored by U.S. difficulties in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The inability of rebel forces to organize and overcome their political divisions posed another major hurdle.
Obama "would say, 'If you are going to propose specific steps, tell me where they lead,'" said Ross, now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "I don't think you can look at it independently from Iraq and Afghanistan. And particularly the sense that these are easy to get into and hard to get out of."
By the time Clinton and Petraeus made their proposal in the summer of 2012, the White House was already quietly examining what the former senior official called "harder options."
A U.N.-brokered Syria truce was falling apart; Russia and China had vetoed U.N. Security Council sanctions on Assad; and the rebels and their Arab allies were calling for arms.
Created and led by National Security Council adviser Simon, the "small group" had six to eight members, including Frederic Hof, then the State Department's top Syria adviser, and senior Pentagon and intelligence community officials. The group's existence has not been reported before, and the White House did not respond to emailed questions about it.
The Pentagon representatives cautioned over the cost, risk and outcome of U.S. military involvement.
Nonetheless, a rough consensus formed, officials said, that Obama should at least review military contingencies such as no-fly zones and targeted air strikes.
But after Obama rejected the Clinton-Petraeus proposal, the study group was also shut down, around July 2012.
THE TIDE TURNS
By mid-2012, the White House seemed increasingly convinced that Assad was on his way out. It told U.S. government agencies to focus on planning for a post-Assad Syria, the former senior official said.
On July 25, Clinton confidently urged Assad to seek a negotiated exit.
But U.S. intelligence reports showing Syrian forces moving chemical weapons stocks were also alarming U.S. officials. Obama on August 20 declared the movement or use of chemical weapons a "red line" that, if crossed, would bring unspecified consequences. The threat had little visible impact.
This spring, two factors came together to finally spur Obama to arm the rebels, current and former officials said.
Mounting evidence that Assad was ignoring Obama's "red line" brought the president under intense public pressure to respond.
As deputy national security adviser Tony Blinken put it in one Situation Room meeting with Obama and other aides: "Superpowers don't bluff."
More critical, officials said, was that Assad's forces - reinforced by Iranian-backed Hezbollah fighters - were reclaiming ground. Assad's departure no longer seemed imminent.
On Saturday, June 8, the State Department's top Middle East official, Beth Jones, took an urgent telephone call from General Salim Idriss, head of the rebels' Supreme Military Council.
Idriss, who had won Secretary of State Kerry's backing, confirmed that Syrian government and Hezbollah fighters had taken the key rebel stronghold of Qusair, and were threatening other areas.
Kerry, who had already canceled an overseas trip to deal with the Syria crisis and his Middle East peace initiative, argued during White House meetings that the rebels needed much stronger U.S. support.
In a meeting of the "principals," Obama's top national security team, on June 12, Kerry said that the United States should go beyond arming opposition fighters and use air strikes, a person familiar with the talks said. Joint Chiefs Chairman Dempsey pushed back strongly, arguing that such a mission would be complex and costly.
The next day, the White House announced the president had decided on direct military aid to Idriss' Supreme Military Council. By one account, Obama had made the basic decision to shift policy, on his own, in the opening days of June.
The announcement came not from Obama himself, but from his aide Rhodes. That was seen by some as proof of Obama's continued wariness.
When Kerry and CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell briefed intelligence committee members in late June, both men left the impression that the administration itself still had reservations about arming the rebels, sources familiar with their presentations said.
The limited and relatively light arms - automatic weapons, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades - are unlikely to be delivered until August, officials have said. Many observers inside and outside the administration are doubtful it will be enough to tilt the balance in the rebels' favor.
(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart, Mark Hosenball and Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Alistair Bell and Claudia Parsons)

Syrian rebels press US to send weapons fast, Kerry sees no military solution to crisis

Syrian opposition leaders on their three-day visit to the US have urged Washington to get a move on with sending promised arms to the rebels. John Kerry has declared there’s no military solution to the crisis.
A delegation representing the Syrian National Coalition, headed by its newly-elected leader Ahmed Jarba, met with John Kerry on Thursday at the US mission to the United Nations in New York. The statement Jarba issued following the closed-door talks described the situation in Syria as “desperate” and urged the US to start delivering on its military aid promise as soon as possible.

"The US commitment of military support to the Supreme Military Council is vital, but it needs to happen fast, and in a way that allows us to defend ourselves and protect civilians," Jarba said.

The House and Senate Intelligence Committees have recently given a green light to arm Syrian rebels, declaring they had their concerns alleviated. Not fully though, as can be seen from a comment made by Dutch Ruppersberger, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee.

"One of our main issues is to make sure that, whatever we do, that nothing gets in the hands of Al Qaeda," said Ruppersberger, as cited by Reuters.

The task is impossible to fulfill, according to political science academic Dr. Colin Cavell, who spoke to RT.

“Anybody who sends arms to the Syrian opposition, they know that it’s going to support the jihadists. When you go ahead and violate international law and support opposition fighters in a country in attempt to overthrow it, then you are declaring yourself at odds and at war with that country. The United States along with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf monarchs have declared themselves at war with Syria… We’ve just gone through two terribly expensive wars and lost thousands of American soldiers, and now we’ve got  Barack Obama and John Kerry trying to get us into a third war,” Cavell said.  

Reuters / Khalil Ashawi

Even if the US does start supplying arms to the Syrian rebel forces, it might be for a short term only. Funding for the program will cease with the end of the US fiscal year, which is  September 30. The US Congress will then have to approve the plan once again, which would mean a new round of bitter debate among the lawmakers.

Despite the congressional approval of weapons supplies, John Kerry was cautious speaking of the Syrian crisis on Thursday, pledging commitment to its peaceful settlement.  

“There is no military solution to Syria. There is only a political solution, and that will require leadership in order to bring people to the table,” John Kerry said.
Russia and the US bringing to the Syrian government and the opposition the negotiating table is something the two countries have been trying to do for quite some time, despite their differences on the crisis. In May Secretary Kerry and Foreign Minister Lavrov announced their joint initiative to organize a peace conference in Geneva. Dubbed ‘Geneva II’, the conference is a follow-up to last year’s international meeting in the Swiss city, where a peace roadmap for Syria was drafted.

Prospects for Geneva II

The Syrian National Coalition’s visit to New York is part of the US’s effort to make the opposition forces sit down for talks. That possibility will be tested at an informal meeting Jarba and his three colleagues are about to have with the 15-member UN Security Council.

The meeting is not a sign of the UN official recognition of the Syrian National Coalition, Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin has warned.

Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin (RIA Novosti / Ruslan Krivobok)

encourage the National Coalition and its leadership to prepare for Geneva II,” he said as cited by RIA Novosti. “It’s an informal event, it’s not even a UN Security Council event. The fact that this meeting takes place should not be viewed as a step towards the National Coalition’s recognition in any official role.”
The group is yet to prove its legitimacy and to respond to some critical voices questioning its status, according to RT’s Marina Portnaya, reporting from New York.

“Critics say the group has no official power and lacks support and recognition inside Syria. The Syrian National Coalition was founded in Doha and is based in Istanbul. Some see this group as outsiders lobbying for more arms to import into Syria’s already-bloody civil war,” Portnaya said.

John Kerry seems not to be one of those skeptics, sounding quite optimistic following his Thursday meeting with the leadership of the Syrian National Coalition.

"The Syrian opposition committed that they believed Geneva II is very important and they agreed to work over the course of the next couple of weeks to pinpoint the terms, the conditions under which they think it could work," he said.

Conditions and terms put forward by the opposition are however exactly what hampered peace talks in the past, as some of them are hardly realistic, such as the current Syrian President’s giving up his power.   

"In principle nobody is against Geneva II, but we cannot enter into talks while the regime continues to kill hundreds every day and use arms of mass destruction," said Burhan Ghalioun, a senior coalition member who was in the delegation, as cited by AFP.  

The Syrian government in turn describes the rebels as terrorists and blames the US for double standards.

"Washington's decision to arm the terrorist groups in Syria proves that the United States [wants to] exacerbate the crisis in Syria, and shows up its dishonesty in the search for a political solution at a [proposed peace] conference in Geneva," a Syrian Foreign Ministry official said in a statement. 
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon has called on both sides of the conflict to halt the violence which has raged since the start of the unrest in March 2011 resulting in more than 100,000 deaths.  

"Military and violent actions must be stopped by both parties, and it is thus imperative to have a peace conference in Geneva as soon as possible, as was initiated by Secretary Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov," Ban said.
-(RT)

http://on.rt.com/fggcdh

Syria rebels meet U.N. Security Council, urge Russia to end Assad support

 

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS | Fri Jul 26, 2013 4:19pm EDT

(Reuters) - Syrian rebel leaders met with the U.N. Security Council for the first time on Friday to discuss the country's two-year war and appealed to Russia to stop its powerful political and military support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government.
The 15-member Security Council has been deadlocked on Syria. Russia, an ally and arms supplier of Assad, and China have three times blocked action against Assad supported by the remaining veto powers - the United States, Britain and France.
"We asked them (Russia) to stop providing the political and military support for this criminal regime to continue its crimes against the Syrian people," senior Syrian National Coalition member Najib Ghadbian told reporters after the meeting.
The Syrian National Coalition delegation to the informal meeting, organized by Britain, was led by newly elected leader Ahmed al-Jarba. On Thursday the group met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and called for the United States to arm the rebels quickly and to push harder for a political settlement.
The United Nations says more than 100,000 people have been killed since Syria's civil war erupted, pitting Assad's forces against rebels seeking to end his family's four-decade rule.
Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin described the meeting in New York as "useful" and said it was up to the international community to bring both sides together to "stop this nonsense of endless bloodshed."
The United States, Russia and the United Nations are still working to convene a meeting in Geneva between the Syrian government and opposition groups to try to broker a peace deal.
So far, attempts to organize a so-called "Geneva II" peace conference on Syria to revive a political transition plan agreed in the Swiss city in June 2012 have been futile. U.N. diplomats say it is increasingly unlikely that such a conference will take place anytime soon, if at all. But Churkin was still hopeful.
"Clearly there are still some obstacles to be overcome for the 'Geneva II' conference to be convened," he said. "There is still a good chance ... because the alternative would be so horrifying, so it's definitely better to keep trying."
AID ACCESS
The opposition delegation, which included Burhan Ghalioun and Michel Kilo, appealed to the Security Council to pressure Assad to commit to the creation of a transitional government with full executive powers that would not include him.
Jarba said that once Assad "makes this commitment we (the opposition) are ready to go to Geneva" for the peace conference.
The opposition also appealed for government forces to at least stop using heavy weapons ahead of any Geneva conference. "It does not mean to stop the war because we know that Bashar al-Assad will not agree to a ceasefire," Ghalioun said.
The United Nations said that nearly 1.8 million Syrians have fled the country - two thirds of those since the start of the year - and more than 4.2 million people have been internally displaced. Most of those in need are women and children.
The Syrian opposition asked the Security Council to boost access for aid agencies in the country and to refer the Syrian government to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which prosecutes war crimes and crimes against humanity.
"Most of the work of the U.N. agencies is done through the Syrian regime and we are concerned that there should be more ways, cross-border assistance maybe, to reach those in the liberated areas," Ghadbian said.
Some western Security Council members are considering a push for a resolution to increase aid access in Syria if attempts to hold a Geneva peace conference fail, but such a move is likely to lead to another showdown with Russia.
British U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said Jarba made "a very strong statement of commitment of the unity of Syria, to democracy and to plurality" and condemned extremism and rejected terrorism.
"I think members of the Security Council will have been encouraged by the commitment shown by the opposition. It remains to be seen whether the regime is equally committed," he said.
(Editing by Philip Barbara)

U.S. uses Syrian rebel supply lines as it prepares to send arms

 

By Lesley Wroughton

WASHINGTON | Thu Jul 25, 2013 6:33pm EDT

(Reuters) - The United States has quietly been testing the Syrian opposition's ability to deliver food rations, medical kits and money to rebel-held areas as Washington prepares to send arms to the rebel fighters.
U.S. officials meet weekly in Turkey with Syrian opposition leaders to work out how best to keep supply lines open to rebel fighters and war-ravaged towns and districts.
One of the Syrian opposition's best-known female leaders, Suhair al-Atassi, attends the meetings as coordinator of the "non-lethal" aid that includes equipment for rebel fighters and local councils, as opposed to humanitarian aid for the displaced.
Supplies are handed to officers of the moderate Free Syrian Army (FSA) at clandestine locations that cannot be divulged for security reasons.
"I sign the paperwork, and shake the hands of the FSA official," said a U.S. State Department official involved in the effort. "I wish them well and walk away."
The rebels take aid for their own units and also distribute some of it to schools, clinics and local councils.
The United States has committed $250 million in non-lethal aid to Syria in addition to the $815 million in humanitarian assistance in support of the rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad's forces.
Recently, Washington began scaling up its assistance to bigger items like trucks, radios, large generators and sophisticated medical equipment.
Some of it is not only aimed at helping fighters but also at supporting civilian authorities in towns that have rejected Assad's rule.
"We are just now starting to send large equipment over the border for local councils and cities in liberated areas," the U.S. official said.
Syria's civil war has killed more than 100,000 people and forced millions to flee their homes. The involvement of Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah in the conflict has shifted the balance of power on the battlefield in favor of Assad, increasing frustration among rebels over delays in the United States sending weapons to them.
With no U.S. diplomatic presence on the ground, Syria presents a unique challenge for aid coordinators.
U.S. officials say they rely on a network of some 75 young Syrians who collect information in rebel-held areas and report back to Atassi's unit. The information is often corroborated with U.N. groups.
SUPPLYING WEAPONS
The U.S. Congress cleared the way earlier this month for Washington to give the rebels not just non-lethal and humanitarian aid but also weapons. Lawmakers have only approved limited funding for the arms operation, as they fear that U.S. weapons and ammunition could end up in the hands of hardline Islamist militant groups.
"One of our main issues is to make sure that, whatever we do, that nothing gets in the hands of al Qaeda," said Dutch Ruppersberger, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee.
To keep track of the non-lethal aid already going into Syria, American officials ask the opposition to bring back photographic evidence of deliveries as proof that the goods made it into the right hands.
"If we are providing small amounts of cash to a local council to pay salaries we insist on signatures and photographs," said the official. "One of the ways to minimize the risk is we keep the amounts of cash small and would pay something like a stipend rather than a salary."
While it is not always easy to guarantee that supplies reach their intended recipients or that they don't eventually make their way to the black market, the Syrian opposition coordinators have begun to earn the trust of U.S. officials.
"They have so far passed the test," the official said.
France also sends supplies to the rebels, including envelopes stuffed with money handed over at the Turkish border.
(Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Alistair Bell and Eric Beech)

Syrian rebels ask Kerry to send U.S. arms quickly

 

By Michelle Nichols

NEW YORK | Thu Jul 25, 2013 7:09pm EDT

(Reuters) - The head of Syria's opposition told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday the country's situation was "desperate" and called for the United States to arm the rebels quickly and to push harder for a political settlement.
The United Nations says more than 100,000 people have been killed since Syria's civil war erupted more than two years ago pitting President Bashar al-Assad's forces against rebels seeking to end his family's four-decade rule.
President Barack Obama, having withdrawn U.S. troops from Iraq and seeking to wind up the U.S. war in Afghanistan, has been reluctant to get involved in the conflict in Syria.
However, U.S. congressional panels this month agreed to a White House plan to provide arms to the rebels despite lawmakers' questions about its chances of success and concerns the arms might be used against Western targets.
A U.S. official has said funding for the classified program runs out on September 30, when the U.S. fiscal year ends. That means the White House will have to seek Congress' blessing again for arming the rebels, the official said, possibly setting up a renewed confrontation over Washington's policy on Syria.
"The U.S. commitment of military support to the Supreme Military Council is vital, but it needs to happen fast, and in a way that allows us to defend ourselves and protect civilians," Ahmed al-Jarba, the Syrian National Coalition's newly elected leader, said in a statement released as he met Kerry in New York.
"The situation in Syria is desperate. We urgently need American action to push the international community to demand a political transition," he added. "American leadership and drive is essential to end this war and bring the democracy that the large majority of the Syrian people want."
REBELS TO MEET U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL
Jarba and three other senior SNC members - Burhan Ghalioun, Najib Ghadbian and Michel Kilo - are in New York to meet informally with the 15-member U.N. Security Council on Friday.
Jarba and rebel military commander General Salim Idriss met with French President Francois Hollande and other French officials in Paris earlier this week to appeal for diplomatic, humanitarian and military aid.
The Syrian rebels are frustrated that U.S. plans to send weapons to them have been held up by congressional concerns.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey have been supplying the rebels with arms, security sources and diplomats say.
"Military and violent actions must be stopped by both parties, and it is thus imperative to have a peace conference in Geneva as soon as possible," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said after meeting with Kerry on Thursday.
The United States, Russia and the United Nations are still working to convene a meeting in Geneva between the Syrian government and opposition groups to try to broker a peace deal.
So far, attempts to organize a so-called "Geneva II" peace conference on Syria to revive a political transition plan agreed in the Swiss city in June 2012 have been futile. U.N. diplomats say it is looking increasingly unlikely that such a conference will take place anytime soon, if at all.
Kerry told reporters that his almost hour-long meeting with the Syrian opposition leaders had been "constructive."
"The Syrian opposition committed that they believed Geneva II is very important and they agreed to work over the course of the next couple of weeks to pinpoint the terms, the conditions under which they think it could work," he said.
(Additional reporting By Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Rand Paul slams Obama’s plans for military involvement in Syria

 
Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) had harsh words this week for the White House with regards to the Obama administration’s consistent inching towards a war in Syria.
Lawmakers in the United States continue to debate what role the US should take in the increasingly bloody Syrian civil war, but Sen. Paul said during a speech at the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention on Monday that President Barack Obama is asking for the American military to open up a front without waiting for congressional approval.
“Even if you believe we should arm Islamic fighters in Syria, shouldn't, at the very least, Congress vote on the matter?” Paul asked of the crowd. “The Constitution is very clear. Congress is to declare war, not the President.”
“Nevertheless, President Obama is moving ahead with plans to get involved in the Syrian civil war, without the authorization of Congress,” he said.

According to Sen. Paul, the White House is aware that taking military action in Syria may not be able to do much to settle a civil war that has so far claimed more than 92,000 lives, by the United Nation’s estimation. Regardless, the libertarian-leaning lawmaker said intervention is still an option, albeit one he isn’t in favor of.
“Last week I was told by the administration, you know what their goal is in Syria? To fight to a stalemate,” Paul said on Monday. “I’ve told them I’m not sending my kids or your kids or any American soldiers to fight for stalemate. When we fight, we fight to win, we fight for American principles, we fight for the American flag and we come home after we win.”
“For our country’s sake, certainly for our soldiers’ sake — for the sake of every veteran who ever donned a uniform and fought for this country — America’s mission should always be to keep the peace, not police the world,” Paul said.
As blood continues to spill across Syria, the US has reportedly weighed a number of options with regards to how it could aid opposition fighters rebelling against the regime controlled by President Bashar al-Assad.
Pres. Obama previously said that any use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime would prompt the US to take action, but the White House has been reluctant to make a move even weeks after announcing that they linked the Syrian leader to using chemical warfare.
Ron Paul, the former Republican congressman for Texas and the father of Sen. Paul, said last month that talks of chemical weapon use prompting the US to intervene is “identical to the massive deception campaign that led us into the Iraq War.”
The White House has reportedly weighed the possibility of enacting a no-fly zone over Syria, and on Monday the House and Senate intelligence committees finally approved a measure that will allow the Central Intelligence Agency to ship weapons to be used by rebel fighters.
Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) said in a statement Monday that lawmakers decided to approve the CIA plan “after much discussion and review,” despite “very strong concerns about the strength of the administration’s plans in Syria and its chances for success.”-(RT)

John Kerry will meet new leader of the Syrian opposition at the UN this week, to boost military aid.

US Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with the new leader of the Syrian opposition at the UN this week, as US plans to boost military aid to the rebels gain steam.

Kerry will meet newly-elected Syrian opposition chief Ahmad Jarba on Thursday afternoon at the United Nations in New York, on the sidelines of a Security Council meeting.
"The secretary plans to meet with... president Jarba and other members of the coalition, including Michel Kilo and Burhan Ghalioun," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.
"They will discuss the current situation in Syria, how to support a process of political dialogue and the Geneva conference, and ways to bolster our assistance to local communities."
It will be Kerry's first meeting with Jarba since he was elected head of the Syrian National Coalition on July 6.
Kerry will seek to convey "the US commitment to continuing to help strengthen the opposition," Psaki said.
Jarba met on Tuesday with French leaders and said he called for "total political support, diplomatic support, humanitarian emergency aid and military and other aid."
Jarba was accompanied in Paris by the Free Syrian Army chief General Selim Idriss, who said the opposition was "working with our European and American friends to obtain technical, medical and humanitarian assistance and, we hope, also weapons and ammunition."
Idriss repeated his complaint that the rebels did "not have enough" weapons as they battle the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
[AFP]

Top U.S. general cautious of consequences of Syria action

 

By Chris Borowski

LASK, Poland | Wed Jul 24, 2013 5:35pm EDT

(Reuters) - The top U.S. military officer said on Wednesday he was cautious over recommending armed intervention in Syria, concerned that ill-conceived action could turn the country into a failed state.
"Before I would recommend a military solution ... I would have to be convinced that the aftermath of the military option would not lead to a failed state in which the suffering would actually be worse," Army General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters.
Speaking at a Polish air force base in Lask, central Poland, where U.S. pilots conduct exercises with their Polish counterparts on F-16 jets, Dempsey said political leaders must consider other options along with military action to provide relief to the Syrian people.
"I'm not suggesting that the international community do nothing. I am suggesting that you need a strategy to tie military options with other instruments of power," he said.
The United States has wavered over what action to take in Syria, where it has demanded the exit of President Bashar al-Assad, who has fought for two and a half years against rebels in a civil war that has killed 100,000 people.
In a letter released on Monday, Dempsey outlined five options the U.S. military was prepared to undertake, from providing training to establishing no-fly zones or conducting limited attacks on military targets.
The letter prompted Republican Senator John McCain, an outspoken proponent of military aid for the rebels, to say he no longer planned to delay Dempsey's nomination to a second term atop the U.S. military.
In his letter to McCain and Democratic Senator Carl Levin, the head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Dempsey warned that involvement in Syria would be an act of war that could cost billions of dollars.
The U.S. military's current role in the two-year conflict is limited to delivering humanitarian aid, providing security assistance to Syria's neighbors and non-lethal help to the Syrian opposition. The U.S. military has an operational headquarters unit in Jordan along with other assets, including F-16 jets.
The White House said in June it would provide military aid to the rebels after concluding that Assad's forces had used chemical weapons.
(Editing by Peter Graff)

US plans to arm Syrian rebels to slow for funding runs out in two months, further delaying the flow of weapons

US plans to arm Syrian rebels passed one congressional hurdle but may face more when funding runs out in two months, further delaying the flow of weapons, US officials and other sources told Reuters news agency.
The House of Representatives and Senate intelligence panels this month agreed to a White House plan to provide arms to rebels fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, despite lawmakers' reservations about the its chances of success.
But a US official involved in the issue told Reuters that funding for the classified program runs out on September 30, the end of the government's fiscal year. That means the White House will again have to seek Congress' blessing for arming the rebels, the official said, possibly setting up a renewed confrontation over Washington's policy in the crisis in Syria.
Obama administration representatives have told the Congress that they are setting up a mechanism to vet rebels - including interviews - before handing over weapons, which could also lead to delays.
Sources close to the Syrian rebels said they fear the American arms delivery will be a drawn-out process in which they get a modest amount of arms in an initial tranche, and congressional committees will have to approve more later.
Despite their approval of the White House plan, several US lawmakers expressed doubts on Tuesday that increased American support will be enough to help rebels turn the war's tide, which has shifted sharply to Assad's Iranian-backed forces.
There is also deep concern that the arms could end up in the hands of radical Islamist fighters who are among the rebels' strongest factions.

Clashes on Syria, spying mark debate on U.S. defense funding bill

(Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers clashed over Syria, Afghanistan and government spying on Tuesday as the House of Representatives began debating a $598 billion defense spending bill for 2014, including a Pentagon base budget of $512 billion and $86 billion for the Afghan war.
The confrontations began even before the measure made it to the floor of the House after Republican leaders moved to restrict the number of permitted amendments to 100, with no more than 20 minutes of debate on divisive issues like Syria policy and spying by the National Security Agency.
A final vote on the bill, which includes about $3 billion more than requested by President Barack Obama, is not expected until Wednesday at the earliest. Debate on the thorniest amendments, including on Syria, funding for Egypt and NSA spying, was not likely to begin until Wednesday.
The White House has threatened a presidential veto of the overall bill unless it is part of a broader budget that supports U.S. economic recovery efforts, saying current House proposals cut too much from education, infrastructure and innovation.
The White House joined senior House Republicans in urging lawmakers to oppose an amendment by Michigan Republican Justin Amash, a favorite of the conservative Tea Party movement, that would bar the NSA from collecting telephone call records and other data from people in the United States not specifically under investigation.
The proposed amendment comes after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked details of an agency surveillance program that collects and stores vast amounts of electronic communications like phone call records and emails.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama welcomed a debate on safeguarding privacy, but opposed Amash's amendment, saying it would "hastily dismantle one of our intelligence community's counterterrorism tools."
Senior House Republicans, including Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers and Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon, circulated a letter to colleagues urging them to oppose the amendment.
"While many members have legitimate questions about the NSA metadata program, including whether there are sufficient protections for Americans' civil liberties, eliminating this program altogether without careful deliberation would not reflect our duty ... to provide for the common defense," they said.
SYRIA SPLIT
As debate got under way, lawmakers expressed concern over the constraints placed on their ability to discuss contentious issues.
Representative Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, accused Republican leaders of ignoring the "real split" in Congress over the Syrian civil war and denying "any real substantive debate" over whether the United States should intervene in a conflict that has already killed 100,000.
U.S. involvement in Syria so far has been limited to providing humanitarian assistance to refugees and non-lethal aid to the Syrian opposition. But Obama is moving ahead with lethal aid after determining the government of President Bashar al-Assad has sometimes used chemical weapons.
"The Republican leadership ducked a real important debate when it comes to Syria," McGovern said. "I hope that ... a few years down the road we don't look back ... and express regret that somehow we got sucked into this war without a real debate."
Lawmakers also strongly condemned the Afghan government for trying to charge the U.S. military customs duties to remove American equipment from the country.
They debated a series of amendments aimed at stripping funding from military programs for the Afghans. The bill sets Afghan war funding at $86 billion.
(Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Eric Beech)

Obama will move forward with a plan to arm the Syrian rebels after some congressional concerns were eased

President Barack Obama will move forward with a plan for the United States to arm the Syrian rebels after some congressional concerns were eased, officials said on Monday.
"We believe we are in a position that the administration can move forward," House of Representatives Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers told Reuters.
The White House announced in June that it would offer military aid to vetted groups of Syrian rebels after two years of balking at directly sending arms to the opposition.
"We have been working with Congress to overcome some of the concerns that they initially had, and we believe that those concerns have been addressed and that we will now be able to
proceed," a source familiar with the administration's thinking told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
But both Republicans and Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees had expressed worries that the arms could end up in the hands of Islamist rebels in Syria like the Nusra Front, and would not be enough to tip the balance of the civil war against President Bashar al-Assad anyway. - Reuters

Syria's rebel commander expected to visit United States

(Reuters) - Syria's top rebel commander is likely to visit the United States next week, U.S.-based Syrian opposition representatives said on Thursday, and he is expected to make a plea for speedy U.S. arms shipments.
General Salim Idriss, who leads the rebel Supreme Military Council, is expected to go to New York for meetings at the United Nations and will perhaps also visit Washington.
His trip to the United States is not fully confirmed and details are still being worked out, said Elizabeth O'Bagy, political director for the Syrian Emergency Task Force advocacy group.
The Syrian rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad are frustrated that U.S. plans to send weapons to them have been delayed in Congress.
"I'm sure it will be foremost on the agenda of whatever meetings he (Idriss) has," O'Bagy said. "I'm sure they will talk a lot about conditions on the ground inside Syria, which are very critical."
Mariam Jalabi of the Syrian National Coalition and a U.N. Security Council diplomat confirmed plans for Idriss to visit the United States.
A former Syrian army general, Idriss was chosen seven months ago as a consensus figure to lead the Supreme Military Council, an umbrella group which runs the Free Syrian Army rebel group.
Idriss is a former military academic who was educated in East Germany.
President Barack Obama's administration announced on June 13 that it had decided to supply direct military assistance to the Syrian opposition, but the plan was delayed by objections from both Democrats and Republicans in Congress.
(Reporting by Susan Cornwell in Washington and Louis Charbonneau in New York. Editing by Christopher Wilson)
 http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/18/us-syria-usa-idriss-idUSBRE96H17620130718

Syrian refugees demand help from Kerry at Jordan camp

(This story contains material from a member of the pool of State Department correspondents in Jordan, of which Arshad Mohammed of Reuters is a member.)
By Arshad Mohammed
(Reuters) - Syrian refugees angrily told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday that the United States should set up a no-fly zone and safe havens in Syria to protect them.
Visiting a camp that holds roughly 115,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan about 12 km (eight miles) from the Syrian border, Kerry spent about 40 minutes with half a dozen refugees who vented their frustration at the international community's failure to end Syria's more than two-year-old civil war.
He told them Washington was considering various options, including buffer zones for their protection, but that the situation was complex and much was still under consideration.
"Where is the international community? What are you waiting for?" a Syrian woman, who did not give her name, told Kerry at the United Nations' Zaatari refugee camp. "We hope that you will not go back to the States before you find a solution to the crisis. At least impose a no-fly zone or an embargo."
Waving a pen in the air and tapping it on the table, the woman referred to the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which ends in three weeks. She said: "Mr. Secretary, if the situation remains unchanged until the end of Ramadan this camp will become empty. We will return to Syria and we will fight with knives.
"You, as the U.S. government look to Israel with respect. Cannot you do the same with the children of Syria?"
NOT "CUT AND DRY"
Kerry made an aerial tour of the tents and pre-fabricated, container-like homes that form by far the biggest camp for Syrians in Jordan. Meeting refugees afterward in a fenced-off administrative section, he acknowledged the anger.
"They are frustrated and angry at the world for not stepping in and helping," Kerry told reporters.
"I explained to them I don't think it's as cut and dry and as simple as some of them look at it. But if I were in their shoes I would be looking for help from wherever I could find it."
Kerry did not enter the area of the vast camp where the refugees live, but kept to the adjacent, fenced-off administrative area where humanitarian officials work and live. The half dozen refugees came to meet Kerry in a conference room within the administrative zone.
"We are not satisfied with the American answer. We never were. We just need ... action," a second woman told reporters after meeting Kerry.
During the meeting, Kerry told the refugees that many young Americans had died or lost their limbs "fighting for the freedom of Iraq" and "fighting for the freedom of Afghanistan".
After the request for buffer and no-fly zones, Kerry said: "A lot of different options are under consideration. I wish it was very simple. As you know, we've been fighting two wars for 12 years. We are trying to help in various ways, including helping Syrian opposition fighters have weapons.
"We are doing new things. There is consideration of buffer zones and other things but it is not as simple as it sounds."
(Editing by Alastair MacDonald)