22:02
Tieng Anh Vui
As David Willis reports from Washington, President Obama had previously said proof of chemical weapons would be a "game-changer" in Syria
Syria has dismissed as "a caravan of lies" claims it used chemical weapons after the US said it would give the rebels "direct military aid".
President Obama made the decision after his administration concluded Syrian forces under Bashar al-Assad were using chemical weapons, a spokesman said.
A rebel leader, Salim Idris, told the BBC it was a "very important step".
But Syria's foreign ministry said the US had used "fabricated information" on chemical weapons to justify the move.
Washington was resorting to "cheap tactics" to justify Mr Obama's decision to arm the rebels, said a statement from the ministry.
On the ground, there were reports of the fiercest fighting in months in Syria's largest city, Aleppo.
Two years of conflict had killed at least 93,000 people, the UN said on Thursday, at a current rate of 5,000 people a month. More than 1,700 children under the age of 10 have died, it added.
CIA training?
Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to Mr Obama, said the president had made the decision to increase assistance, including "military support", to the rebels' Supreme Military Council (SMC) and Syrian Opposition Coalition.
The US was "comfortable" working with Gen Idris, leader of the SMC, and aimed to isolate some of the more extremist elements of the opposition, such as Sunni militant group al-Nusra, he added.
Analysis
Initially US support looks likely to involve the supply of light arms and ammunition. Mr Rhodes says that the President has not made any decision to pursue a military option, like a no-fly zone, and he has ruled out the deployment of US ground troops. Requests from the opposition for anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons are, we understand, still a matter of discussion.
Thus the US response to President Assad's apparent crossing of a "red line" seems tentative at best. As ever it raises more questions than answers.
Mr Rhodes did not give details about the military aid other than to say it would be "different in scope and scale to what we have provided before".
Until now, the US has limited its help to rebel forces by providing rations and medical supplies.
Administration officials have been quoted by US media as saying it will most likely include sending small arms and ammunition. The New York Times quoted US officials as saying Washington could provide anti-tank weapons.
The CIA is expected to co-ordinate delivery of the military equipment and train the rebel soldiers in how to use it.
In an interview with the BBC's Newshour programme on Friday, Gen Idris urged the immediate supply of anti-aircraft and anti-tank weaponry, saying these would boost the rebels' morale.
'Not convincing'
The US intelligence community believes the Assad regime had used chemical weapons, including the nerve agent sarin, on a small scale against the opposition multiple times in the past year, said Mr Rhodes, adding that he estimated as many as 150 people had died in the attacks.
What is sarin?
- One of a group of nerve agents invented by German scientists as part of Hitler's preparations for World War II
- Huge secret stockpiles built up by superpowers during Cold War
- 20 times more deadly than cyanide: A drop the size of a pin-head can kill a person
- Called "the poor man's atomic bomb" due to large number of people that can be killed by a small amount
- Kills by crippling the nervous system through blocking the action of an enzyme
- Can only be manufactured in a laboratory
- Very dangerous to manufacture
Washington's "clear" statement was welcomed by Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who urged Syria to let the UN "investigate all reports of chemical weapons use".
The US announcement is one the Syrian opposition has been pushing and praying for for months, says the BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut.
It seems clear Mr Obama has finally been persuaded, as Britain and France have argued, that the battlefield cannot be allowed to tilt strongly in the regime's favour, as is currently happening, says our correspondent.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the UK agreed with Washington's assessment and said an urgent response to the Syria crisis would be discussed at the G8 summit of economic powers in Northern Ireland next week.
Moscow said Washington's supposed evidence of chemical weapons use in Syria did "not look convincing".
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman told the BBC he remained against "any further militarisation" of the conflict in Syria, saying the people there needed peace, not more weapons.
'Long overdue'
The support of the West's regional allies, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, had helped the rebels in the days after the uprising became militarised.
“Start Quote
Many politicians in Britain and France still feel a heavy imperial burden to use their well-honed militaries to re-make the world. Mr Obama, I am sure, feels no such imperative but increasingly finds himself pushed towards acting”
End Quote
But the tide turned after the Assad regime turned to Moscow and Tehran for help. Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon have also been involved in the government's counter-offensive.
The White House announcement immediately shook up the ongoing debate over how the US might aid the rebels.
Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, who have been particularly strident in their calls for military aid, said the chemical weapons finding must change US policy in Syria, saying US credibility was on the line.
"A decision to provide lethal assistance, especially ammunition and heavy weapons, to opposition forces in Syria is long overdue, and we hope the president will take this urgently needed step," they said in a joint statement.
"But providing arms alone is not sufficient. The president must rally an international coalition to take military actions to degrade Assad's ability to use airpower and ballistic missiles and to move and resupply his forces around the battlefield by air."
Đăng ký: Tieng Anh Vui
Posted in: 
0 comments:
Post a Comment