Syria - U.S. Train and Equip
A White House official said 24 August 2013 the US had a "range of options" if it decided to act against Syria's alleged use of chemical weapons. The official commented as President Barack Obama met with his top national security advisers to discuss the Syrian government's alleged use of chemical weapons on civilians in a Damascus suburb. Obama had previously expressed reluctance to any US troop presence in Syria.
"If the U.S. goes in and attacks another country without a UN mandate and without clear evidence that can be presented, then there are questions in terms of whether international law supports it — do we have the coalition to make it work?" Obama said 23 August 2013. "Those are considerations that we have to take into account." Obama had stated that after a decade of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, he did not want to be drawn into another Mideast conflict, and polling suggested public support for this position.
US President Barack Obama said 30 August 2013 he had not made a final decision on attacking Syria, but made clear he thinks doing so would be in the interest of national security. Syria has become a threat to the United States, he said, "by violating well established international norms against the use of chemical weapons, by further threatening friends and allies of ours in the region, like Israel, and Turkey and Jordan, and it increases the risk that chemical weapons will be used in the future, and fall into the hands of terrorists who might use them against us."
On 31 August 2013 Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed the US on saying that Washington’s allegations about the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons against civilians were "unimaginable nonsense.” Putin said“Common sense speaks for itself – government troops are advancing, in some regions they surrounded the insurgents ... In such conditions, giving a trump card to those who have always been calling for a foreign military intervention is simply unimaginable nonsense... I am sure this was no more than a provocation by those looking to drag other countries [into the conflict] and obtain support of powerful international player, particularly the United States,”
In December 2013, the US suspended non-lethal support for rebels in northern Syria after Islamic rebels seized some of their bases. From that point onward, the US has focused its attention on the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) group.
On June 27, 2014 the White House asked the US Congress for $500 million to equip and train selected members of the armed moderate Syrian opposition. National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said Thursday the money will also be used to help defend the Syrian people, stabilize areas under rebel control and meet the threat of terrorism. Hayden said while there is no military solution to the crisis in Syria, the money would be another step toward helping the Syrian people defend themselves against attacks by the Assad regime. President Obama had told the graduating class of the West Point military academy last month that the US must push back against extremists who he said are finding safe haven in the chaos in Syria.
Obama’s request called for the Pentagon to “train and equip vetted elements of the Syrian armed opposition to held defend the Syrian people, stabilize areas under opposition control, facilitate the provision of essential services, counter terrorist threats and promote conditions for a negotiated settlement.” Obama’s request also reflects a scramble by the admin to try to put some form to the president’s surprise announcement last month of plans for a $5 billion counterterrorism fund to provide training for ops in vulnerable countries in the Middle East; neither the Pentagon nor State had drawn up plans for spending the money. The initiative was included in the $58.6 billion the Pentagon is seeking in wartime funding for fiscal 2015.
In October 2014, US envoy to the global anti-ISIS coalition, Gen. John Allen, told London-based Asharq al-Awsat daily that getting rid of Assad was not a job for the coalition. “What we would like to see is for the FSA [Free Syrian Army] and the forces that we will ultimately generate, train and equip to become the credible force that the Assad government ultimately has to acknowledge and recognize,” he said. “But the intent is not to create a field force to liberate Damascus.”
The US military is awaiting funding approval from Congress before it can start vetting and recruiting moderate Syrian opposition forces to fight Islamic State jihadist group in Syria and Iraq, the Pentagon said 02 December 2014. “We have not begun an active recruiting and vetting program,” Pentagon spokesperson Rear Adm. John Kirby said at a press briefing. “As we are developing the criteria, guidelines and finalizing infrastructure requirements, we also do need to get the funding that goes with the authorization to actually execute the vetting process,” he said, referring to Congress’ power to authorize funding.
The United States said 30 September 2015 it would continue to lead coalition airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria, ignoring Russia's request for U.S. aircraft to avoid Syrian airspace as Russia began conducting bombing attacks there Wednesday.
US State Department spokesman John Kirby said a Russian official in Baghdad had given U.S. Embassy personnel short notice earlier in the morning of the planned strikes in Syria against Islamic State targets. "The U.S.-led coalition will continue to fly missions over Iraq and Syria as planned and in support of our international mission to degrade and destroy ISIL," Kirby said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.
US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter earlier had directed the Pentagon staff to communicate with Russia about coalition activity in Syria, to avoid any mistaken encounter between coalition and Russian forces there, a Pentagon spokesman said.
The collapse of the U.S. train-and-equip program for a rebel force that can partner with the international coalition against the Islamic State group added doubt to the establishment of a safe haven – at least for the time being, U.S. officials said.
The United States stopped recruiting new militants from inside Syria for military training outside the country as the troubled "train-and-equip" program is reevaluated. The entire Pentagon program to train so-called moderate militants to fight Daesh (ISIL) terrorists is "under review," though the US military is still recruiting for the program in other countries, according the US Defense Department.
"As we review the program, we have paused the actual movement of new recruits from Syria," Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said 29 September 2015. "We also continue to provide support for current forces on the ground and to train the cohorts currently in the program," he added.
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