Who is arming syrian rebels

The weapons, which have entered Syria in large quantities in recent days, include ammunition and GRAD rockets. Turkish officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Related Coverage. The Idlib area forms part of an arc of territory in the northwest representing the last big area held by the opposition. Some three million people are living in Idlib, half of them Syrians who have fled from other parts of the country.

Russian and Syrian warplanes have stepped up air strikes on southern Idlib and adjacent areas of Hama province in an apparent prelude to a ground offensive. He was a very principled, courageous diplomat who did a lot of good. People in the Syrian-American community admired Ford's efforts and looked at Obama in disbelief.

People in the intelligence community said the time to arm the rebels was The opposition was turning into a military force and hadn't yet been overrun by al-Qaeda-linked fighters and militants.

Early support came in the form of "soon-to-expire MREs", or Meals Ready to Eat, "repurposed from Afghanistan and Iraq", says one former opposition member. The White House officials didn't want to provide weapons in part because they were afraid they'd end up in the wrong hands.

Rebels later admitted some weapons ended up with an al-Qaeda-affiliated group. The CIA gave some weapons and supplies to the rebels, though not many. He recalled meeting a CIA contractor who tasked with helping the rebels who had quit, saying: "They're asking us to perform miracles, but they're giving us nothing.

Military officials were trying to explain to officials at the White House what they needed to help the rebels. The requests were vetted by people from the White House and federal agencies such as the state department. While people were arguing over Syria in Washington, Ford was in Damascus, telling rebel fighters Americans were on their side. Things were promised but never arrived, though, making it hard for him to develop a relationship with them.

One morning in July Schrier escaped through a small window. Padnos didn't. Schrier told US officials about the building and its location. The officials asked one of the opposition leaders to go to the building and wondered what would happen. He never found out if the commander actually looked for Padnos. Left alone in the cell, Padnos was tortured.

A crumpled, yellow Post-It with his password was stuck to the phone. He doesn't sound bitter about Ford, the White House officials or the Syrian commander, and he said it hardly mattered what the Americans were doing for the opposition at the time.

In a broader sense that's true of US support for the Syrian opposition. No one knows what would have happened if Obama had decided to arm the rebels in a serious manner after the uprising had started. In an interview last year Obama described the rebels as former doctors, farmers and pharmacists. The president saw the rebels as brave but unpromising. So did many Syrians. As we sat at on outdoor cafe, a bee landed on his arm. With bees and political leaders, Barabandi tries to see the world from their perspective.

He admired Ford and others like him but said they were feckless. For years Obama has been trying to shift the nation's attention away from the Middle East to Asia. He wants to keep America's military role in the world to a minimum. It's: 'Look, Syria is your issue, and we have a lot on our plate'," said Tyler Thompson, of the non-profit United for a Free Syria, describing his meetings with administration officials.

Obama is impatient with moral arguments. According to people who've discussed policy with him, he swats those notions away and asks: Will it work? Speaking recently about the train-and-equip programme, Obama said he'd pressed for details about its viability and heard "a bunch of mumbo jumbo". He also thought it could pull the US into a long struggle in Syria.

As he talked, I looked at my notebook. I'd written down things people had told me about why the US should send weapons to the Syrian opposition. The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been a long-time ally of Russia, which has an air base near the Syrian coastal city of Latakia. Russia helped Syria retake territory lost to rebels, some of whom have the backing of the United States. Recently, the last rebels left Syria's northern city of Aleppo, which President Assad's forces pounded with the backing of their Russian allies.

At a year-end news conference earlier this month, Obama said the world "is united in horror at the savage assault by the Syrian regime and its Russian and Iranian allies on the city of Aleppo.

Back in September, the Obama administration, while citing progress in pushing back IS, said more must be done to secure a sustained cease-fire and political transition to end Syria's civil war, which has been raging for nearly six years.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country, along with Iran, Turkey and Syria, have agreed to hold peace discussions in the Kazakh capital of Astana to resolve the conflict in Syria. He said peace talks are expected to take place in January and that the next step for Syria should be a nationwide cease-fire.

Toner said the United States has not been invited to the talks, but is in frequent contact with both Russia and Turkey. So the fact that Turkey and Russia are holding these kinds of talks is not necessarily something we would disapprove of," Toner said. The comments from the Russians come less than a month before President-elect Donald Trump takes office as the 45th U. Putin has said he hopes to work with the next U.