US picks defected Syrian general as sole conduit of arms aid to rebels
Iran Press TV
Mon Jun 17, 2013 7:43AM GMT
The Obama administration has picked defected Syrian General Salim Idriss as the sole conduit of direct US military assistance to anti-Damascus insurgents as well as the weapons already being supplied by allies such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The US, however, has still “not committed to providing any weaponry,” said the 56-year-old general that heads the Supreme Military Council of the so-called ‘Free Syrian Army,’ cited in a Washington Post report on Monday.
Idriss’s remarks came in a phone interview from the Turkish capital of Ankara, following “two days of talks with US officials over what form the unspecified military assistance announced last week would take,” the daily states, adding that he urged the Americans to “move swiftly” on delivering weapons to the foreign-backed militants under his command before they suffer further defeats at the hands of the Syrian Army.
“We need help. I can tell you very clearly, very urgently, we need it as soon as possible,” Idriss said during the interview before returning to his headquarters in the northern Syrian province of Idlib.
Citing the support the Lebanese Islamic resistance movement Hezbollah has provided for the Syrian Army, Idriss added, “We need to make a balance, and we need the help of our friends.”
Syrian government, he said, “is supported by its friends, but our friends have been waiting. It makes the situation very difficult.”
The report further cites US officials as expressing hope that channeling American weapons through Idriss would “help reverse” the surging influence of al-Qaeda-linked extremist militants, who have “benefited from private donations by wealthy Arabs” in the Persian Gulf in return for following their radical agendas.
The daily then goes on to describe Idriss as “a moderate” who speaks English, German and Arabic and has won “the trust of the West” and recently met secretly in Syrian territory with hawkish US Republican Senator John McCain, who said in a statement following the meeting that “General Idriss and his fighters share many of our interests and values.”
Idriss, according to the report, claims that 80,000 rebels are under his command and that he had “given assurances to US officials” that any American military aid channeled through him “would not find its way to extremists.”
“There is no danger the weapons we may receive from our friends will go to the wrong groups,” he is further cited as saying.
The report, however, expressed doubt about how much “real authority” Idriss actually wields over the “chaotic rebel force, which consists of hundreds of loosely organized fighting units that answer to no one other than their local commanders.”
It also cites Elizabeth O’Bagy of the Institute for the Study of War, who arranged McCain’s secret meeting with Idriss last month, that the defected Syrian general was picked to lead the Supreme Military Council “due to his ability to serve as a ‘diplomat’ for the council… not because of his command of significant ground forces or operational effectiveness.”
O’bagy has reportedly been heavily involved in promoting US assistance to the foreign-backed insurgents in Syria and even accompanied McCain in his clandestine intrusion into Syrian territory to meet with Idriss.
MFB/MFB
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