Monday, March 4, 2013
Kerry: US more confident arms flow to Syria moderates
Syrian anti-regime protesters destroying a statue of former president Hafez al-Assad after rebels overran the northern city of Raqqa.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said that Washington was increasingly confident that weapons being sent to the Syrian opposition by other countries were going to moderate forces.
Kerry, on his first overseas tour since taking office, said at a news conference in Doha that he had held talks with nations in the region to discuss the kinds of arms being sent to the different Syrian opposition forces.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar are widely believed to be providing weapons to the rebels, but the United States says it does not wish to send arms for fear they may find their way to Islamist hardliners who might then use them against Western targets.
"We had a discussion about the types of weapons that are being transferred," Kerry said at a joint news conference with Prime Minister Sheikh Hammad bin Jassim al-Thani of Qatar, the last stop on a nine-nation tour of Europe and the Middle East.
Referring to the supply of weapons, he said, "We did discuss the question of the ability to try to guarantee that it's going to the right people and to the moderate Syrian opposition coalition and I think it's really in the last months that that has developed as a capacity that we have greater confidence in."
Some 70,000 people have been killed in Syria and nearly a million have fled the country in a two-year uprising, the United Nations says.
The conflict began two years ago as peaceful protests that turned violent when Syrian President Bashar al-Assad tried to crush the revolt.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar share the West's alarm at the rise of al Qaeda-aligned groups in Syria, and say the answer is for outsiders such as themselves to be more involved in backing rebels there.
The two Gulf Arab states have argued that building ties through aid to favoured opposition groups is the only way to ensure that other, hardline Islamist factions are sidelined.
Kerry, on his first overseas tour since taking office, said at a news conference in Doha that he had held talks with nations in the region to discuss the kinds of arms being sent to the different Syrian opposition forces.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar are widely believed to be providing weapons to the rebels, but the United States says it does not wish to send arms for fear they may find their way to Islamist hardliners who might then use them against Western targets.
"We had a discussion about the types of weapons that are being transferred," Kerry said at a joint news conference with Prime Minister Sheikh Hammad bin Jassim al-Thani of Qatar, the last stop on a nine-nation tour of Europe and the Middle East.
Referring to the supply of weapons, he said, "We did discuss the question of the ability to try to guarantee that it's going to the right people and to the moderate Syrian opposition coalition and I think it's really in the last months that that has developed as a capacity that we have greater confidence in."
Some 70,000 people have been killed in Syria and nearly a million have fled the country in a two-year uprising, the United Nations says.
The conflict began two years ago as peaceful protests that turned violent when Syrian President Bashar al-Assad tried to crush the revolt.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar share the West's alarm at the rise of al Qaeda-aligned groups in Syria, and say the answer is for outsiders such as themselves to be more involved in backing rebels there.
The two Gulf Arab states have argued that building ties through aid to favoured opposition groups is the only way to ensure that other, hardline Islamist factions are sidelined.
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