Syrian Rebel Claims US Already Arming Opposition

US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) talks with Head of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces Ahmad Moaz Alkhatib (R) during a meeting in Rome, Italy, 28 February 2013. (EPA)

London/Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat—Fighting continues in Syria amid signs that the US is pondering deeper intervention in the crisis, though stopping short of the demands of the Syrian opposition for direct military aid and weapons.

The new US Secretary of State, John Kerry, will meet today in Rome with representatives of the umbrella group that claims to represent the rebels battling to overthrow the government of Bashar Al-Assad, the Syrian National Coalition.

The SNC originally planned to boycott the meeting of the ‘Friends of Syria’ group, in protest at what they said was a lack of international support for their cause. They were reportedly persuaded to change their minds by Kerry and US Vice President Joe Biden, who promised to offer a substantial increase in American aid in return for showing up.

However, the rebels are likely to be disappointed at what will be on offer. A member of the SNC, Riad Seif, told Reuters yesterday: “We ask our friends to give us every backing to achieve gains on the ground and help reach a political solution from a position of strength, not weakness . . . We expect to receive political, humanitarian and qualitative military support.”

While the Washington Post reports that the Obama administration is upgrading its assistance to the rebels, in terms of military assistance this will be limited to training for some rebels at a regional base, and ‘non-lethal’ equipment only, including communications gear and body armor.

There are also plans to assist the rebels in providing humanitarian aid and some services in areas they control by providing them with funds directly, rather than through international and humanitarian organizations.

Despite the reluctance of the US to supply weapons directly, there are increasing reports of Croatian-built anti-armour weapons reaching rebel fighters in northern and eastern Syria, a supply funded by some Gulf Arab states, according to the New York Times.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat yesterday, a Syrian rebel named Muhammad Sirmini, the head of the Free Syrian Army’s office in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, said that the weapons had been supplied by Turkey and the US, though his claims are yet to be verified. The Turkish government denies supplying arms or allowing smuggling of weapons on its territory, and last year American plans to supply arms to Syrian rebels were rejected by the White House. Sirmini added that the new weapons were not arriving in enough quantities to alter the balance of power on the battlefield.