Americas

Americas

U.S., others move closer to direct intervention on Syria: report

02 April 2012 21:07 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The United States and some other countries, by providing salaries and communications equipment to Syrian rebels, have moved closer to direct intervention in conflicts in Syria, a report said here on Monday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Although there remains no agreement on arming the rebels, the offer, made public at the Friends of Syria meeting concluded in Turkey’s Istanbul on Sunday, is bringing the loose coalition to " the edge of a proxy war" against the Syrian government led by President Bashar al-Assad, according to a New York Times story.

At the Istanbul meeting, some Arab nations, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, have pledged to provide some 100 million U.S. dollars in salaries over three months for the rebel fighters inside Syria, said the report.

At the same arena, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also for the first time confirmed that Washington was providing satellite communications equipment to help the opposition inside Syria. According to the Syrian National Council, the main opposition group, the American assistance will include night- vision goggles.

The report said that the moves reflect a growing consensus among the participants of the Friends of Syria meeting that the meditation efforts by UN-Arab League joint envoy Kofi Annan, were failing to halt violence in the Middle East country.

The newspaper viewed such moves as to "stretch the definition of humanitarian assistance and blur the line between so-called lethal and nonlethal support."