Josh Rogin
Daily Beast
June 17, 2013
Despite the White House’s public announcement Wednesday that it would
provide “military assistance” to the Syrian rebels, Washington has yet
to communicate with the rebels about that assistance, Gen. Salem Idris,
the head of the Free Syrian Army’s Supreme Military Council, told The
Daily Beast Sunday.
“We are still waiting for the military support from the United
States. They didn’t tell us anything about the military support. Direct
and officially we didn’t receive any information from the United
States,” Idris told The Beast, adding that he had heard from “my friends
who are close to the administration” while waiting to hear directly.
“We welcomed the announcement from the United States,”
he said. “They announced that the regime used chemical weapons. But we
are waiting for the next step, which will be the decision to support the
FSA with weapons and ammunition.”
Much like in the Libyan civil war two years ago, the White House has
followed Europe’s lead in the intra-Syrian conflict. The French, and to a
lesser degree the British, have been in close consultations with Idris
and the other leaders of the FSA over the past days and weeks, according
to the general, who said that he met privately on June 11 with French
President Francois Hollande in Ankara, Turkey, after the French
government decided to provide military assistance on June 5, according
to two government officials and sources close to Idris.
Full article here
