US to increase military support to Syrian opposition

The United States will increase military and political support to the Syrian opposition, a White House official announced late on Thursday during a conference call with reporters. "It is going to be an increase on both the political and the military side, and we are going to be working that through with the SMC (Supreme Military Council of the Syrian rebels) in the days to come, with friends and allies, particularly those in the region who are also providing assistance, and we will be consulting with Congress as well," said Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications. Rhodes spoke after announcing that the United States had concluded that the Assad regime had used chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict. Referring to the additional U.S. support for the Syrian rebels, Rhodes said, "This will be both the increases in assistance we have already undertaken since April, but there will be additional assistance on top of that. ... It is aimed at strengthening both the cohesion of the opposition, but also the effectiveness of the SMC on the ground and their efforts to defend themselves against a repressive regime that has shown no boundaries and its willingness to kill civilians." U.S. officials are continuing to work toward a political settlement that would include Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stepping down, but the Russians have not yet agreed to it, Rhodes said. U.S. officials have briefed its chemical weapons information to the Russians, "and we believe that Russia and all members of the international community should be concerned about the use of chemical weapons anywhere in the world given the norms that are established against it," Rhodes said. "We will be consulting with Russia at the G8 and at the United Nations going forward, and once again making the case that continuing to provide support to the Assad regime without applying the necessary pressure to help achieve an end to this violence is not in the interest of the international community," he added. A political settlement is still the preferable outcome in Syria, Rhodes said. In the absence of a political settlement, the conflict will be "a civil war within Syria that has foreign involvement from groups like Hezbollah and Iran -- you are going to have that conflict continue until somebody prevails in that conflict," he said. That will mean more loss of life, suffering and refugees in the region, "so we have an obligation, despite the difficult odds involved, to pursue a political negotiation, and the Geneva process continues to provide a template for that to take place," he said. Even as that process continues, "we are going to move forward with our own efforts to strengthen the opposition," Rhodes said, referring to the Syrian rebels. "And so we are essentially moving on those two tracks -- an effort that is focused on coalescing and strengthening the effectiveness of the political and military opposition, but also seeking to pursue a political settlement."