Will Obama reconsider arming Syrian rebels? This week could be key.

President Obama has long been loath to arm Syrian rebels, worried that the weapons could fall into extremists' hands. But with the rebels faltering, he could reconsider.

By Howard LaFranchi,?Staff writer / June 11, 2013

Civilians and forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Qusayr celebrate after the forces took control of the town from rebel fighters last week.

Rami Bleibel/Reuters

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With the tide in Syria?s civil war showing signs of shifting in favor of President Bashar al-Assad ? especially as thousands of Hezbollah fighters have poured into the country in recent months to fight on the government?s side ? the Obama administration is taking a fresh look at arming Syria?s rebels.

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President Obama could decide as early as this week to alter his Syria policy and shift from providing only nonlethal assistance to providing weapons to carefully vetted moderates among Syria?s disparate rebel groups, administration officials say.

That may sound familiar, since some administration officials have asserted privately since shortly after Mr. Obama?s reelection in November that a decision to arm the rebels was imminent. Closer to the truth is that a heated debate over the advantages and drawbacks of arming the rebels has continued in the White House since the US election.

The debate is likely to continue this week, as some officials are expected to advocate imposition of a no-fly zone over arming the rebels. Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN whom Obama has just named to replace Tom Donilon as his national security adviser, is said to favor a no-fly zone ? an option other administration officials insist is unlikely to win presidential favor.

What has changed recently ? and what could tip the balance now in favor of providing weapons that have been denied for the better part of two years ? is how Mr. Assad and his forces appear to have regained the upper hand in the 26-month-old civil war.

Earlier this year, reports from the war-smashed country referred to a ?beleaguered? Assad, but now that adjective is applied more regularly to the rebels, who have suffered a string of recent setbacks ? including the loss last week of the town of Qusayr near the Lebanese border.

Now reports are circulating that a resurgent Assad may be about to launch an offensive on the strategic city of Homs, the center of which is held by the rebels. Losing Homs could cut the rebels off from the southern part of the country and could be a decisive blow, some regional experts say.

Noninterventionist voices inside the White House and out have long argued that weapons the US provided to the rebels could end up in the hands of the more extremist Islamist forces fighting against Assad ? and could someday be turned against the US or US interests.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/y7YzH9dw840/Will-Obama-reconsider-arming-Syrian-rebels-This-week-could-be-key

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