Fwd: Syria opposition to receive direct U.S. aid - Bloomberg

[loretta mussi <loretta.mussi at unponteper.it>]

Syria opposition to receive direct U.S. aid
Bloomberg News

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Washington --

The Obama <http://www.sfgate.com/barack-obama/>  administration is moving to provide direct assistance to the internal opposition in Syria for the first time, marking a shift in U.S. policy toward a more aggressive plan to help oust President Bashar Assad.

Last week, a group of senior Obama administration officials met to finalize a package of options for aiding both the internal and external Syrian opposition, to include providing direct humanitarian and communications assistance to the Syrian opposition, two administration officials confirmed.

This meeting of what's known as the Deputies Committee of the National Security Council set forth a new and assertive strategy for expanding U.S. engagement with Syrian activists and providing them with the means to organize themselves, but stops short of providing any direct military assistance to the armed opposition.

For now, riskier options, such as creating a no-fly zone in Syria, using U.S. military force there, or engaging directly with the Free Syrian Army, are all still off the table. But the administration has decided not to oppose, either in public or in private, the arming of the rebels by other countries, the officials said.

"These moves are going to invest the U.S. in a much deeper sense with the opposition," one administration official said. "U.S. policy is now aligned with enabling the opposition to overthrow the Assad regime. This codifies a significant change in our Syria policy."

The administration is planning to greatly expand its interactions with the external Syrian opposition, led by the Syrian National Council, as well as with internal opposition bodies to include Syrian nongovernmental organizations, the Local Coordinating Councils, and the Revolutionary Councils that are increasingly becoming the de facto representation of the Syrian opposition.

The Free Syrian Army works with these councils, but the administration is not ready to engage the armed rebels directly out of concern that they are still somewhat unaccountable and may have contacts with extremist elements.

As part of the new outreach, the State Department and USAID have been assigned to devise a plan to speed humanitarian and communications assistance to the internal Syrian civilian opposition, working through the State Department's Middle East Partnership Initiative office.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/07/MNBT1NGOI2.DTL

This article appeared on page A - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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