US Democrat Offers Bill to Arm Syria Rebels

Local Editor

A top US Senate Democrat introduced Monday a bill that authorizes arming rebels in Syria.

Senator Robert Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced the Syria Stabilization Act of 2013 that would give "increased authorization to provide lethal and non-lethal assistance to Syrian armed opposition."

The bill is seen as intensifying pressure on Obama to take action in Syria after US and "Israel" claimed that the regime used chemical weapons, something Obama has warned would be a "game changer."

"Al-Assad regime has crossed a red line that forces us to consider all options," Menendez said in a statement, claiming that the regime used chemical weapons.
However, the United Nations investigators revealed they have found testimony from victims and medical staff which shows that the armed groups used the nerve agent sarin in Syria.

Sarin was classified as a weapon of mass destruction in UN Resolution 687.
The UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria could not find any evidence that Syrian government forces used chemical weapons against militants, commission member Carla Del Ponte said on Sunday.

"Our investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals and, according to their report of last week which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated," Del Ponte said in television interview.
"The greatest humanitarian crisis in the world is unfolding in and around Syria, and the US must play a role in tipping the scales toward opposition groups and working to build a free Syria," Menendez added.

The measure specifically bars the administration from transferring portable, shoulder-fired missile or grenade launchers known as MANPADS, amid concern that such weapons have been finding their way from places like Libya into the hands of extremists who might use them against US interests.

It also increases sanctions on arms and oil sales to Syria, and authorizes a "transition fund" of some $250 million per year to opposition.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by moqawama.org