Washington Reluctant to Support Rebels

The United States is wary of opponents whom they know nothing about.

“Additional measures” will be considered if the diplomatic pressure is not enough in Syria, the spokesman for the White House and the U.S. State Department said Tuesday. The Obama Administration also suggested that it could finally pass the act in Syria, as demanded by more and more Republicans, notably John McCain, the unsuccessful presidential candidate in 2008.

Concretely, this would mean providing logistical support to the Syrian rebels or assuring the security of “safe zones.” For the time being, the White House and the U.S. State Department continue to stress the time remaining in diplomacy: “We don’t want to take actions that would contribute to the further militarization of Syria,” said press secretary Jay Carney on Tuesday. The U.S. military asserts that “safe zones” or “humanitarian corridors” would require the neutralization of Syrian air forces, and therefore an unwanted major military operation.

These contradictory statements mainly reflect the great embarrassment of American diplomacy, paralyzed by the developments in Syria. Washington would be very happy to see the regime of Bashar al-Assad, ally of Iran and supplier of arms to Hezbollah, fall. But U.S. intelligence agencies put little trust in the Syrian rebels, whom they see linked to Iraqi Sunnis and infiltrated by al-Qaida. It would be “premature” to arm the rebels, “because I would challenge anyone to clearly identify for me the opposition movement in Syria at this point,” stressed Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “If we want to deliver arms to the Syrian opposition, we cannot do it openly anyway,” said a Western diplomat. “This is done, or will be done, via allies in locations such as Qatar or Saudi Arabia.”

Failing to intervene openly in the field, the United States thus continues to struggle on the diplomatic scene. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will take part in the Friends of the Syrian People conference in Tunis. The idea behind this is to assemble a coalition of the largest international effort to maintain pressure on al-Assad, intensify sanctions against the regime, and to strengthen the opposition by encouraging them to include all components of Syrian society.