Stars and Stripes
May 2, 2013
Hagel, British official say Obama ‘rethinking’ arming Syrian rebels
By Chris Carroll
WASHINGTON: The Obama administration is rethinking its stance of not arming Syrian rebels fighting the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday.
But arming moderate rebel groups is only one of a number of options on the table, said Hagel, who hewed to the cautious tone President Barack Obama has set on Syria during a joint Pentagon appearance with British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond.
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Hammond said a European Union ban currently prevents Britain and other countries from arming the rebels. The ban is set to expire at the end of the month, however.
“We’ve kept all our options open,” Hammond said. “We have not thus far provided any arms to the rebels, but we’ve never said it’s something we will not do.”
Although the White House said last week that the United States has physical evidence leading it to believe that Assad’s forces used chemical weapons in recent months, Obama said Tuesday at the White House there is still too much uncertainty for the United States to take direct action in Syria.
“We don’t have a chain of custody that establishes exactly what happened,” he said of the physical evidence for the use of deadly sarin gas.
Hammond told reporters at the Pentagon that physical samples suggesting Syrian use of chemical weapons don’t meet the standard of evidence needed to take action. But, he said, future uses of the weapons could provide the necessary evidence. That fact should be taken as a warning to the Syrian regime not to consider using its extensive chemical arsenal in the Syrian civil war, he said.
The British public is keenly aware faulty evidence on weapons of mass destruction can lead to long and costly wars, Hammond said.
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