Barack Obama has made his most explicit show of support yet for Syria's rebels with a personal pledge to provide "non-lethal" aid to opposition fighters seeking to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.
Photo: Reuters
By Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent
6:31PM BST 25 Mar 2012
The president's endorsement on Sunday of a US proposal to ferry medical aid and communications equipment to the faltering rebel movement came amid signs that Turkish plans to impose a buffer zone within Syrian territory were gaining traction.
US officials said that the delivery of aid to rebel militias would dominate the agenda when the "Friends of Syria", a coalition of Western and Arab powers opposed to Mr Assad, meet in Istanbul next Sunday.
Despite evidence that their foreign backers are drifting towards greater involvement in the yearlong conflict, Syria's rebels would have been hoping for more substantial succour.
Their disappointment was compounded after Nabil Elaraby, the secretary general of the Arab League, disclosed that there were no plans to discuss a proposal to arm the rebels at the meeting in Istanbul.
Qatar and Saudi Arabia have both voiced approval for such a move but have won little support from other Arab states or the West amid concern over divisions within the Syrian opposition and the make-up of some of Free Syrian Army's loosely affiliated militias.
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Apart from fears that groups identifying with al-Qaeda are operating on the fringes of the insurgency, Western wariness of siding openly with the rebels has mounted after rights groups accused them last week of carrying out human rights abuses.
But with the violence continuing unabated, Turkey is likely use Sunday's meeting to rally support for a limited cross border incursion.
According to newspaper reports in Turkey, 500 Turkish soldiers inspected areas close to the border last week to assess the feasibility of imposing a buffer zone 12.5 miles into Syrian territory.
A military incursion would curtail support Ankara claims Syria is giving to Kurdish rebels in Turkey, although the country's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was careful to present the proposed mission in more selfless terms.
"It is not possible to remain a spectator, to wait and not to intervene," he said at a joint press conference with Mr Obama in South Korea, where the two leaders are attending a nuclear security conference.
"It is our humanitarian and conscientious responsibility. We are engaged in efforts towards doing whatever is necessary within the framework of international law."
Mr Erdogan's comments coincided with a visit by Kofi Annan to Moscow, where the UN and Arab League envoy to Syria is trying to shore up Russian support for his peace initiative.
Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, offered his full support, saying it may be the last chance to avoid a “prolonged and bloody civil war”.
Mr Annan will later go to China which like Russia has backed Syria at the UN Security Council.
Meanwhile, government forces pressed ahead with an offensive against opposition-controlled districts of Homs, while the rebels attacked a military facility near Damascus.
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