CFR Update Daily News Brief 2/28 U.S. Non-Lethal Aid to Syria Marks Major Policy Shift

Daily News Brief February 28, 2013

Top of the Agenda: U.S. Non-Lethal Aid to Syria Marks Major Policy Shift

In a significant policy shift, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday that the United States plans for the first time to provide non-lethal aid (Reuters), including food rations and medical supplies, to Syrian opposition fighters battling Bashar al-Assad's regime. The Obama administration will also provide an additional $60 million (BBC), adding to the $385 million of humanitarian aid already given and $54 million in equipment, medical supplies, and other non-lethal assistance. Speaking at an international conference on Syria in Rome, Kerry said that the decision was the result of "the brutality of superior armed force propped up by foreign fighters from Iran and Hezbollah" (AP).

Analysis

"If the Obama administration is to lead on Syria, it must commit itself to steps that can bring about the early collapse of the regime and its replacement by a representative and responsible alternative. Only direct political and military intervention on the side of the opposition can make that happen," writes a Washington Post editorial.

"If Mr Kerry is to have any diplomatic force in discussions he must be able to threaten an alternative. Mr Assad has cynically exploited the west's reluctance to intervene to stay in power. This bluff has to be called. This applies equally to the EU, which last week rejected a UK call to lift its arms embargo to allow shipments to rebels. If western powers continue to stand on the sidelines, the war will drag on," writes a Financial Times editorial.

"[If] the past is prologue, and more arms proved insufficient, advocates of arming the rebels would soon argue for direct U.S. intervention. The only strategy that stands a chance—and not even necessarily a very good one—is for the United States, the post-Assad Alawites, and the secular Syrian Sunnis to focus relentlessly on the common goal: stopping the victory of Islamic extremists," writes CFR's president emeritus Leslie H. Gelb for the Daily Beast.