A Free Syrian Army fighter carrying his weapon smokes as he stands on the rubble of damaged buildings in Kefr Hamra, Aleppo, yesterday.
Bussels/Damascus: The United States is not asking Nato to back a no-fly zone in Syria and the issue is not currently on the alliance’s agenda, the outgoing US ambassador to Nato said yesterday.
The purpose of such a move would be to prevent Syrian President Bashar Al Assad from using air power against rebel forces, thereby addressing a critical imbalance in the civil war. But it would be costly to enforce, and could mean entering the conflict by destroying Syria’s Russian-built air defences.
“We are not pushing for a no-fly zone at Nato,” Ambassador Ivo Daalder said in response to a question after his farewell speech in Brussels.
As of today, he said: “the issue of a no-fly zone is not on the table at Nato. Whether it will (be) tomorrow or some other day, I don’t know, but it isn’t there yet. It isn’t, as far as I know, on the table of any Nato member, including, so far the United States.”
US President Barack Obama’s administration said last week it would arm Syrian rebels, having obtained proof the Syrian government used chemical weapons against fighters trying to overthrow Assad. Western diplomats said last Friday Washington was considering a limited no-fly zone over parts of Syria. But the White House noted later that it would be far harder and costlier to set one up there than it was during the conflict in Libya which led to the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Rebels fought to halt an advance by President Bashar Al Assad’s forces into northern Syria yesterday while US President Barack Obama faced a showdown with Russia’s Vladimir Putin over Obama’s decision last week to arm the insurgents. New evidence emerged of escalating foreign support for the rebels, with a Gulf source telling that Saudi Arabia had equipped fighters for the first time with shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, their most urgent request. Rebels said Riyadh had also sent them anti-tank missiles.
The weapons deal was disclosed as rebel fighters confront government troops and hundreds of militants from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia seeking to retake the northern city of Aleppo, where heavy fighting resumed yesterday.
After months of indecision, the Obama administration announced last week that it would arm the rebels because Assad’s forces had crossed a “red line” by using nerve gas. That has put Washington on the opposite side of the two-year-old civil war from its Cold War foe Moscow, which supplies weapons to Assad.
The United Nations has urged all sides to stop sending arms to a conflict that has killed at least 93,000 and shows no sign of abating. But those calls have been ignored, with regional and global powers doubling down on support for either side.
The White House said last week Obama would try to persuade Putin to drop support for Assad at a summit of the G8 group of world powers in Northern Ireland. Putin showed no sign of being convinced. Speaking on the summit’s eve, he hammered home his point that arming fighters was reckless, zeroing in on an incident last month when a rebel commander was filmed biting a piece of an enemy’s entrails.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was equally blunt, saying Putin was supporting thugs. “We are not — unless there is a big shift in position on his part — going to get a common position with him at the G8.”
Russia says it is unconvinced by US evidence accusing Assad of using chemical weapons, and said it would block any attempt to impose a no-fly zone over Syria.
ASSAD’S FORCES GAIN
Those backing the rebels—including Britain, France, Turkey and Arab countries as well as the United States — were driven to intensify support in recent weeks to rescue the rebellion after Assad’s forces scored important military gains. Just a few months ago, Western countries thought Assad’s days were numbered. But last month he received the open support of thousands of fighters from Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed Shia militia in neighbouring Lebanon, which helped him capture the strategic town of Qusair from the rebels this month.
Hezbollah’s participation turns the internal conflict into a regional sectarian battle, with Sunni-ruled Arab states backing the mainly Sunni Syrian rebels and Shia Iran backing Assad, an adherent of the Alawite offshoot of Shia. The news that rebels are receiving shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles from Saudi Arabia marks an important escalation with the potential to shift momentum by limiting Assad’s use of air power, one of his major advantages.
The missiles have been at the top of the wish-list of the main rebel military commander, Salim Idriss. The West had long been wary because of fears such weapons could fall into the hands of terrorists and be used to shoot down civilian planes. US ally Israel is particularly fearful of such weapons being distributed in the Middle East. The missiles were obtained from suppliers in France and Belgium, and France had paid to ship them to the region, the Gulf source told Reuters. France says it has not yet decided to arm the rebels but along with Britain it persuaded the European Union to drop a weapons embargo from the start of this month.
Opposition sources in Aleppo said Saudi Arabia had also supplied the rebels with at least 50 Russian-made Konkurs anti-tank missiles in the last few days. The weapons had reached rebels fighting a government column at the town of Maaret Al Arteek north of Aleppo, scene of major fighting in recent days.Western countries say helping the rebels on the ground is necessary to restore military balance after Assad’s recent gains. Previously, the West provided only “non-lethal” aid.
After winning the battle for the strategic town of Qusair this month, Assad’s forces have announced an offensive in the mainly rebel-held north near Syria’s biggest city, Aleppo.
Speaking from Aleppo, a member of the opposition Sham News Network said fighting resumed yesterday around Maarat al Arteek on the northwest outskirts of the city, where Assad’s forces had taken high ground threatening rebel positions.
Reuters
