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/ World / Security / War in Syria /

The U.S. Congress prevented Obama from giving weapons to the Syrian opposition

Moscow believes this is not enough...

11.07.2013 12:06

Context:

The U.S newspaper The Hill reported that the Intelligence Committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives blocked the President Barack Obama’s decision to provide military assistance to the Syrian opposition.

According to the newspaper, the congressmen in their decision are based on the fact that the weapons may fall into the hands of terrorists, including those connected with al-Qaeda. For the present the limitations details are not known because the committees voted in closed session. It is noted in this connection that these limitations are sufficient to prevent the previously planned supplies.

Meanwhile Moscow believes that blocking by the U.S. Congress of Obama’s decision will not affect the situation in Syria.

“I do not think it will affect the situation with those positions taken by the opponents of the regime,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. According to him, the Syrian rebels are getting enough weapons and actively use it.

“It is not for nothing that the oppositionists say they will go to a conference on the settlement of the Transnistrian conflict only after having won back some of the country’s territory. Following this logic, we will never convene any conference,” said the Minister.

Recall that in June, Deputy National Security Adviser, Ben Rhodes, said that Washington was ready to provide military support to the Syrian opposition. A declaration of the forthcoming supplies was made amid reports that the Syrian authorities allegedly used chemical weapons against the rebels.

“The president approved the provision of more aid to the opposition. This will include the provision of direct support to the leadership of the Syrian opposition. This includes military support. I can not tell you all the types of support for various reasons, but it will be different in scope and scale,” said then Ben Rhodes.

After this declaration, a group of U.S. lawmakers unifying the members of the Republican and Democratic parties came out against such a decision, calling to adopt a special resolution banning for the White House to deliver weapons to Syria without the approval of Congress.

According to politicians, Washington’s intervention will lead to an escalation of the conflict. At the same time the parliamentarians reminded that the U.S. intervention in the civil war in Libya has led to the attack of the American consulate in Benghazi, whereby the ambassador Chris Stephen was killed.

The day before it became known that chemical weapons in Syria was not applied by the government forces but by militants. This was reported by Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin.

According to him, specialists in Russian laboratories certified by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons have analyzed the samples taken at the site of the weapon impact in the Syrian city of Khan al-Asal near Aleppo, on March 19, 2013. Churkin separately stressed that Russian experts had taken samples directly on the scene, and did not get them from a third party.

“I would like to note that unlike other reports, these samples were taken at the place of shell hit by our experts personally. They were not transferred to us by any third party. The report, which I handed over to UN Secretary General, is not just a description of the results; it contains 80 pages of photographs, formulas and graphs to confirm our findings,” said the diplomat.

The results of the analysis, Churkin said, showed that the shell contained sarin was of non-commercial production: particularly, hexogen that was used as a charge, is not usually applied when using standard ammunition. In this regard, said the permanent representative, there is every reason to believe that it was used by militants, not by the government army.

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