SyriaWhite House to conduct urgent, comprehensive review of U.S. Syria policy
The White House today and tomorrow is conducting an urgent, and comprehensive, review of U.S. Syria policy, with a major policy announcement expected Wednesday or Thursday. The urgency is the result of changes on the battlefield. Bolstered with thousands of Hezbollah fighters, growing financial support from Iran and Iraq, around-the-clock arms shipments from Iran and Syria, and more direct Iranian involvement in overseeing the regime’s military operations, the Assad government has been able to turn the tide of war in its favor. Senior administration officials believe that arming the rebels may no longer be sufficient to reverse the Assad government’s gains unless the United States takes additional, and more direct, steps like carrying out airstrikes against Syrian forces.
High administration officials would meet in the White House this week to review different Syria policy options. High on the agenda is the issue of sending arms to the Syrian rebels.
CNN reports that the issue has become more urgent in the past two weeks. Bolstered with thousands of Hezbollah fighters, growing financial support from Iran and Iraq, around-the-clock arms shipments from Iran and Syria, and more direct Iranian involvement in overseeing the regime’s military operations, the Assad government has been able to turn the tide of war in its favor, capturing the strategic town of al Qusair on the Lebanese border.
The New York Times reports that some American analysts believe that the regime’s recent, and more effective, strategy, has been overseen by Qassim Suleimani, the head of the Iranian Quds Force, which has been helping the Assad government in its fight against the rebels.
“I think the rebels are in trouble,” said Jeffrey White, a former Middle East analyst with the Defense Intelligence Agency who is now a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told theYork Times. “Speed is of the essence. The regime’s momentum needs to be brought to a halt.”
The Times notes that some senior administration officials argue that with Hezbollah joining the fight, arming the rebels may no longer be sufficient to reverse the Assad government’s gains unless the United States takes additional, and more direct, steps like carrying out airstrikes against Syrian forces. The advantage of air-strikes is that they can be targeted and limited in scope. A no-fly zone, however, would involve the Obama administration in the kind of open-ended military operation it has sought so far to avoid.
In addition to arming the rebels, the administration is considering asking EU countries to begin and arm moderate rebels before 1 August. The EU has lifted its ban on providing arms to the rebels, but the two countries most likely to send such arms, the United Kingdom and France, said they would not begin to do so before 1 August.
Gen. Salim Idris, the head of the military wing of the Syrian opposition, said: “We can’t wait until August. It is a joke.”
CNN notes that Secretary of State John Kerry has canceled a planned trip to the Middle East in order to take part in the Tuesday and Wednesday meetings.
“At the president’s direction, his national security team continues to consider all possible options that would accomplish our objectives of helping the Syrian opposition serve the essential needs of the Syrian people and hastening a political transition to a post-Assad Syria,” National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said.
“We have prepared a wide range of options for the president’s consideration, and internal meetings to discuss the situation in Syria are routine,” Meehan added. “The United States will continue to look for ways to strengthen the capabilities of the Syrian opposition, though we have no new announcements at this time.”
The discussions are a result of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces making progress against the rebels in the past few weeks as well as Hezbollah becoming more active in the fighting on the Syrian regime. The rebels have said without support they may lose the fight for good.
