White House denies arming Syrian rebels | WPN World People News

WASHINGTON A day after a media report claimed that CIA officers were distributing weapons and ammunition to the rebels in Syria, the US government clarified saying it was only providing humanitarian aid and non-lethal assistance to the Syrian opposition.

"We do not, as a matter of policy, provide lethal aid to the opposition," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters.

"We provide humanitarian aid to the Syrian people. We provide non-lethal assistance to the opposition, and we continue to work with the opposition, in concert with our international partners, to help them organise themselves, to help them develop greater capacities," he said.

His remarks came after the New York Times (NYT) reported that for weeks CIA officers based in Turkey have been overseeing illegal arms supplies to Syria's opposition factions fighting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Carney said the Syrian people had to decide the fate of President Assad.

"It is our position to work with the international community, to work with our partners to try to bring about the political transition that the Syrian people desperately deserve. It is our firm belief that that political transition cannot take place without Assad stepping down, removing himself from power," he said.

"The United States does not make a decision about the disposition of leaders who remove themselves from power. That's obviously up to the Syrian people," Carney said.

The US also welcomed the decision of a Syrian pilot to defect to Jordan.

"We very much welcome the pilot's decision to do the right thing. We've long called for members of the Syrian armed forces and members of the Syrian regime to defect and to abandon their positions rather than be complicit in the regime's atrocities," said Pentagon Press Secretary George Little.

Source: United States News.net