Sunday Times 2
‘Friends of Syria’ in Doha talks on arming rebels
View(s):DOHA, June 22 (AFP) -Foreign ministers of governments that support the Syrian opposition gathered in Qatar today after rebels welcomed recent arms deliveries they said could turn the tables on the Damascus regime.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, whose government announced earlier this month that it was ready to start arming the mainstream rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA), was among the top diplomats attending the “Friends of Syria” meeting.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who was also in Doha for the talks, said his government had yet to take a decision on whether to provide arms as well as non-lethal equipment to the rebels.
“On the much debated question of whether we should give lethal aid of any kind to the Syrian opposition, the position remains the same — we have taken no decision to do that,” he told reporters as ministers gathered.
Ahead of the talks, an FSA spokesman told AFP it had new types of weaponry that could give it the edge in the 27-month conflict.
“We’ve received quantities of new types of weapons, including some that we asked for and that we believe will change the course of the battle on the ground,” Louay Muqdad said.
“We have begun distributing them on the front lines, they will be in the hands of professional officers and FSA fighters,” he said, without saying who supplied them.
Senior opposition figure Burhan Ghalioun said the FSA had recently received “sophisticated weapons”, including “an anti-aircraft defence system”.
Washington said earlier this month that it would provide arms to the rebels in response to intelligence assessments that forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad had made limited use of its chemical weapons stockpiles.
But US officials have not specified what types of weapons Washington is prepared to deliver.
The Los Angeles Times reported on Friday that the CIA and US special forces have been training Syrian rebels for months, including in the use of coveted anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons.
Top diplomats from Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates were also due to join the Doha talks.
“The goal of the meeting is to be very concrete about the importance of every kind of assistance that’s coming from the London 11 countries (Friends of Syria)… being fully coordinated and going through only the Syrian opposition coalition,” a US official said on Friday.
The official called the Qatar meeting critical as the opposition Syrian National Coalition was examining its leadership amid concerns in Washington that fighters battling Assad lack cohesion and direction.
“This is all in support of energising, re-energising, the Syrian opposition coalition leadership to work to select its leadership,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
Backers of the Syrian rebels fear that weaponry they provide could fall into the hands of radical groups such as the Al-Qaeda-allied Al-Nusra Front.
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