Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has pledged U.S. military aid to
Syrian rebels.

The White House said Obama decided to increase support to Sunni rebels
who have been fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Congress welcomed Obama’s decision. Two leading senators said the
administration must act immediately to stop the Assad campaign.

“A decision to provide lethal assistance, especially ammunition and
heavy weapons, to opposition forces in Syria is long overdue,” Sen. John
McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham said in a statement.

Officials said the
president, ahead of a Western-sponsored meeting of the Syrian opposition
leadership, would approve the first U.S. military assistance to the rebels.

“The president has made a decision about providing more support to the opposition that will involve providing direct support to the Supreme Military Council,” Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said. “That includes military support.”

In a briefing on June 13, Rhodes did not specify the U.S. military aid to Syrian rebels, but appeared to rule out a no-fly zone over Syria. He said the Obama administration would consult with U.S. allies, including a meeting of the G-8 on June 16.

“Any future action we take will be consistent with our national interest, and must advance our objectives, which include achieving a negotiated political settlement to establish an authority that can provide basic stability and administer state institutions; protecting the rights of all Syrians; securing unconventional and advanced conventional weapons; and countering terrorist activity,” Rhodes said.

Rhodes said the administration determined that the Assad regime fired
chemical weapons toward the rebels in 2012 and 2013. The White House
official cited an intelligence assessment that Assad used sarin on a “small
scale against the opposition multiple times in the last year.” The
assessment said up to 150 people died in the CW attacks.

“The president has been clear that the use of chemical weapons — or the
transfer of chemical weapons to terrorist groups — is a red line for the
United States,” Rhodes said in a separate statement.

“The president has said that the use of chemical weapons would change his
calculus, and it has.”

The White House announcement came amid an Assad offensive that destroyed
rebel strongholds throughout central and southern Syria. Rebel leaders
warned that without massive aid, including anti-aircraft and anti-tank
weapons, the Syrian military, backed by Iran and Russia, could destroy the
opposition.

  Bashar Assad, Ben Rhodes, GOP leaders back Obama decision to send military aid to Syrian rebels, sarin, Sen. John McCain, Sen. Lindsey Graham