Rebels in Syria battling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad have began to receive a significant amount of more and better weapons in recent weeks, in an effort paid for by Persian Gulf nations and coordinated in part by the United States, opposition activists and U.S. and foreign officials say. President Barack Obama’s administration officials stressed that the United States is neither supplying nor funding the lethal material, which includes antitank weaponry. The administration has instead expanded contacts with opposition military forces to provide the gulf nations with assessments of rebel credibility and command-and-control infrastructure.
A senior State Department official, who remains anonymous, said, “We are increasing our nonlethal assistance to the Syrian opposition, and we continue to coordinate our efforts with friends and allies in the region and beyond in order to have the biggest impact on what we are collectively doing.” As hopes dwindle for a political solution to the Syrian crisis, many officials are now reportedly considering an expanding military confrontation to be inevitable.
