REPORT: Russia says arms to Syrian rebels risks escalating violence in region

     

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that more U.S. military support for forces opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could stoke violence in the Middle East, the ministry said in a statement on Friday.           

A U.S. official said on Thursday that President Barack Obama had authorized sending U.S. weapons to Syrian rebels for the first time, after the White House said it had proof the Syrian government had used chemical weapons against opposition forces.         

During a telephone conversation, Lavrov "stressed that such a step (military support) risks escalating (violence) in the region, while accusations against Damascus of the use of chemical weapons by the United States are not backed up by verified facts," the statement said.

This as the White House said it would be dramatically more difficult and costly to set up a no-fly zone over Syria than it was in Libya, stressing that the United States does not have a national interest in pursuing that option.        

"We feel like the best course of action is to try to strengthen a moderate opposition," Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes told a news briefing.        

He said the United States did not want to send U.S. troops - or "boots on the ground" - to Syria and said enforcing a no-fly zone over the country could require intense, open-ended U.S. military engagement.

In this regard, President Barack Obama will discuss how to help Syria find ways to end its civil war during the G8 conference in Northern Ireland next week, the White House said.            

For its part, Syria's foreign ministry said the United States was lying about chemical weapons use to give it an excuse to intervene in the country's two-year-old civil war.           

In turn, Britain announced it is still not ready to arm the Syrian opposition despite a decision by President Barack Obama to do so, but is not ruling out the introduction of a no-fly zone or any other measure, a spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron said on Friday.           

As well, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the world had made clear that any use of chemical weapons in Syria was unacceptable and a breach of international law.         
   
On the field:           

Activists are reporting the heaviest fighting in months in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.          

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the clashes concentrated in the eastern neighborhood of Sakhour.       

The opposition's Aleppo Media Center said troops failed to advance in the battle that continued until the early hours of Friday.        

The fighting follows three U.S. officials saying Thursday that President Barack Obama has authorized sending weapons to Syrian rebels for the first time.           

The attack on rebel-held Sakhour comes a week after Syrian government forces backed by Hezbollah fighters captured the town of Qusayr near the Lebanon border.       

Building on its victory in Qusayr, the Syrian military is trying to try to clear rebel-held areas in the central provinces of Homs and Aleppo.          



REUTERS/AP


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