Russia Warns US Against Equip Syria Rebels



  Written by : Mohamed Abdel Fattah
Jul 01, 2014
Russia warned the United States on Monday against stepping up support for Syria's opposition.

last week , US President Barack Obama ’s administration asked Congress for $500 million for the US military to train and equip those armed Syrian oppositionist that the White House calls “moderate.”

Washington also dispatched military advisers to help Iraq stamp out a renewed militant threat.

In a statement on Monday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry criticized the move saying it would only bolster a caliphate declared by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant [ISIL] in part of Iraq and Syria.

"Given the real situation on the ground, these considerable funds, if allocated, would in fact serve entirely to strengthen the terrorist 'caliphate' proclaimed by the ISIL," it said.

"Under the circumstances in which terrorist and extremist groups have secured their dominant role among anti-governmental forces in Syria, the best arms and best prepared fighters would end up with them."

On Sunday Sunni jihadists group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) declared a new caliphate and an Islamic state to claim dominion over Muslims across the globe .

ISIS have declared the captured territories from Iraq's Diyala province to Syria's Aleppo a new Islamic State - a ‘caliphate and declared its chief, Abu Bakr  al-Baghdadi, as "the caliph" of the new state and "leader for Muslims everywhere,"

Islamic extremists have long aspired to recreate the Islamic caliphate that ruled over the Middle East for hundreds of years.

Previously, US aid to the Syrian opposition that is fighting dictator Bashar al-Assad focused on non-lethal provisioning, while the Central Intelligence Agency focused on sending small arms and missiles to what the US calls the "vetted" Syrian moderates.

The administration's budget request includes $1.5 billion for a "Regional Stabilization Initiative" that involves the Syrian opposition as well as neighboring countries Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq.

The United States has already been operating covert programs to supply rebels with weapons, and is providing non-lethal aid to opposition groups, White pointed out. The rebels have also been supplied with U.S. TOW anti-tank missiles, though it is not clear if they are coming from the United States or another country.

Defending Obama's move, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry  on Friday said that the moderate Syrian opposition had a key role in repelling the ISIL.

Separately,Five Russian Sukhoi Su-25 fighter jets arrived in Baghdad late on Saturday, and Iraqi state television said they would be used to fight the ISIL.

Sources

Reuters

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