The US is preparing to officially recognise the new Syrian opposition, amid reports the West is preparing to provide military training to rebels fighting Bashar al-Assad.
Free Syrian Army rebels Photo: AP
The Telegraph
11:58AM GMT 11 Dec 2012
Officials say the administration is on track to recognise the new Syrian opposition council as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people at an international conference on the crisis in Morocco this week.
The move will pave the way for greater US support for those seeking to oust Mr Assad and follows the blacklisting of a militant Syrian rebel group with links to al-Qaeda. That step is aimed at blunting the influence of extremists amid fears that the regime may use or lose control of its stockpile of chemical weapons.
It comes amid claims that Western allies, including Britain, are examining plans that would see rebels provided with air and naval power.
The military chiefs of Britain, France, Turkey Jordan, Qatar and the UAE reportedly held a meeting last month discussing future strategy.
One senior Whitehall official told The Independent: "The efforts have so far been uncoordinated without any focused objective. If this is worth doing, then it is worth doing professionally; training the FSA [Free Syrian Army] and providing them with air and maritime support when necessary."
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Any attempt to do so would likely be met with heavy opposition from Russia and China.
Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state had been due to attend Wednesday's meeting in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh but cancelled her trip because she was ill with a stomach virus, her spokesman, Philippe Reines, said. Instead, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns will lead the US delegation.
On Monday, Mrs Clinton designated Jabhat al-Nusra, or "the Support Front" in Arabic, a foreign terrorist organisation. The move freezes any assets its members may have in US jurisdictions and bars Americans from providing the group with material support. The designation is largely symbolic because the group is not thought to have holdings or support in the United States, but officials hope the penalties will encourage others to take similar action and discourage Syrians from joining.
That step was part of a package intended to help the leadership of the newly formed Syrian Opposition Council improve its standing and credibility as it pushes ahead with planning for a post-Assad future.
More significant, though, will be the upgraded status for the council that the US is preparing to announce in Marrakesh. That is expected to be accompanied by pledges of additional humanitarian and nonlethal logistical support for the opposition. It's unlikely that the US would add military assistance to that, at least in the short-term.
Providing arms remains a matter of intense internal debate inside the administration, officials said.
Recognition of the council as the sole representative of Syria's diverse population will bring the United States into line with Britain, France and several of America's Arab allies, which took the same step shortly after the body was created at a meeting of opposition representatives in Qatar last month.
The US had been leading international efforts to prod the fractured Syrian opposition into coalescing around a leadership that would truly represent all of the country's factions and religions. Yet it had held back from granting recognition to the group until it demonstrated that it could organise itself in credible fashion.
In particular, Washington had wanted to see the group set up smaller committees that could deal with specific immediate and short-term issues, such as governing currently liberated parts of Syria and putting in place institutions to address the needs of people once Assad is ousted. Some of those committees could form the basis of a transitional government.
Officials said the US evolution in recognising Syria's opposition would closely mirror the process the administration took last year in Libya with its opposition.
"I would remind you of how this went in the Libya context where we were able to take progressive steps as the Libyan opposition themselves took steps to work with them, and to advance the way we dealt with them politically," State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said.
The move could allow the Syrian opposition to set up a liaison office in Washington with a de facto ambassador.
It is unclear, however, given the level of violence in Syria and the potential threat of chemical weapons, if the U.S. would soon send a representative to rebel-controlled areas of the country.
The conflict started 20 months ago as an uprising against Assad, whose family has ruled the country for four decades. It quickly morphed into a civil war, with rebels taking up arms to fight back against a bloody crackdown by the government. According to activists, at least 40,000 people have been killed since March 2011.
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