Chemical weapons inspectors attacked in Syria
An international team sent to investigate allegations that chlorine gas had been used as a weapon in Syria’s civil war came under attack Tuesday, forcing it to abort its mission to reach a village where numerous such attacks have been reported. The team from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is collaborating with the United Nations in overseeing Syria’s promise to abandon chemical weapons, said all of its investigators were safe and had returned to their base.
New York Times
President Barack Obama may soon sign off on a project to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels, a move that would significantly boost U.S. support to forces who have been asking for three years for military help in their quest to oust President Bashar Assad, administration officials said Tuesday.
The step would send a limited number of American troops to Jordan to be part of a regional training mission that would instruct carefully vetted members of the Free Syrian Army on tactics, including counterterrorism operations, the officials said.
They said Obama has not yet given approval for the initiative, and that there is still internal discussion about its merits and potential risks.
In a foreign policy speech today to the U.S. Military Academy, Obama is expected to frame Syria as a counterterrorism challenge and indicate that he will expand assistance to the opposition, according to the officials. However, he is not likely to announce the specific program, which is still being finalized, the officials said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss administration deliberations.
The State Department, the Pentagon and the intelligence community, along with many in Congress who back the move, have concluded that Assad will not budge without a change in the military situation on the ground, according to the officials. At the same time, there are growing fears about the threat posed by al-Qaida-linked extremists fighting in Syria, the officials said.
The Senate Armed Services Committee last week passed a defense bill that authorizes the Defense Department to provide training and equipment to vetted elements of the Syrian opposition.
The US already has covert support operations in place for the Syrian opposition, and it is not yet clear how the new program would work. The United States has spent $287 million so far in non-lethal aid on the four-year-old civil war.
Rebel commanders have been asking the U.S. for lethal assistance as their gains have been wiped out. But the U.S. has been reluctant to provide that kind of aid for fear that weapons could end up in the hands of extremist rebels who might then turn on neighboring Israel or against U.S. interests.
The State Department on Tuesday declined to comment on the proposed train-and-equip program, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Spokeswoman Jen Psaki, however, told reporters that several options to support moderate Assad foes remain under consideration. She also highlighted the terrorism threat.
“We have been clear that we see Syria as a counterterrorism challenge, and therefore certainly we factor that in, in options we consider,” she said. “The current policy approach continues to be strengthening the moderate opposition, which offers an alternative to the brutal Assad regime and the more extremist elements within the opposition.”
The expected announcement follows intense high-level discussions between the United States and Jordan, which over the weekend expelled the Syrian ambassador as part of what is planned to be an escalation in the effort to isolate Assad, who is running for re-election in a June election that the U.S. and its allies have condemned as a farce.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II was in Washington last week and met with Secretary of State John Kerry. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel made a stop in Jordan earlier this this month during a Middle East trip.
The U.S. currently has roughly 1,500 military troops in Jordan, in addition to the approximately 6,000 that recently arrived there for a limited time to participate in the annual Eager Lion exercise. Eager Lion 2014 includes Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine troops, as well as ships and aircraft. The exercise started this past weekend.
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