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Renewed Push in U.S. to Arm Syrian Rebels
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Written By: Jim Lobe*/ipsnews
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Posted Date: 2/9/2012 10:17:55 PM
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What with rumours from Israel of war on Iran, a major showdown
with the Egyptian military over the indictments of government-
funded U.S. activists in Cairo, and continuing political
paralysis in Iraq, you would think President Barack Obama has
enough Middle East crises to deal with.
But in the aftermath of last weekend's Russian and Chinese vetoes at
the U.N. Security Council of an Arab League-sponsored resolution
calling for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down as part of
a transition leading to elections, calls for Washington to take
stronger action, including arming rebel forces, have grown much
louder here.
So far, the administration has resisted the pressure, focusing
instead on convening a "Friends of Syria" contact group of anti-Assad
Western and Arab states to ensure that whatever support may be
provided to the chronically fractious opposition is coordinated to
the greatest possible extent.
Washington is particularly eager to coordinate policy with Turkey
whose foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, arrived here Thursday.
Citing the precedent of last year's U.S. intervention in Libya, three
of the Senate's most hawkish members said Wednesday sanctions and the
creation of the contact group were not enough.
"In Libya, the threat of imminent atrocities in Benghazi mobilized
the world to act," Sens. John McCain, Lindsay Graham, and Joe
Lieberman, said in a joint statement. "Such atrocities are now a
reality in Homs and other cities all across Syria. More than 6,000
lives have been lost, and there is no end in sight."
"We must consider, among other actions, providing opposition groups
inside Syria, both political and military, with better means to
organize their activities …, to defend themselves, and to fight back
against Assad's forces," urged the three senators.
Their remarks echoed those of neo-conservatives and other hawks who
have been arguing for months that Washington should intervene more
forcefully in the ongoing violence in Syria for strategic, as well as
humanitarian reasons.
"Syria is the soft underbelly of Iran, Tehran's most important ally,
(and a) conduit for arms and cash to terrorists," wrote Danielle
Pletka, the vice president for foreign and defence policy studies at
the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI), on CNN's
website this week in support of arming the Turkey-based Free Syrian
Army (FSA), among other steps to help oust Assad from power.
"A unique |
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