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U.S. Steps Up Aid to Syrian Opposition, Pledging $60 Million U.S. Steps Up Aid to Syrian Opposition, Pledging $60 Million
(35 minutes later)
ROME — The United States, stepping up its support for the Syrian opposition, announced on Thursday an additional $60 million in assistance to help the opposition provide basic services in areas it controls. Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States would also provide food rations and medical supplies to the Free Syrian Army, the armed wing of the opposition, the first such American aid to the opposition’s military. ROME — Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday that the United States would provide food rations and medical supplies to the Free Syrian Army, the military wing of the opposition that is fighting to depose Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Mr. Kerry made the announcement after a meeting with Syrian opposition leaders in Rome. On Wednesday, senior administration officials said that a training mission for the rebels at a base in the region, which is already under way, represented the deepest American involvement yet in the Syrian conflict, though the size and scope of the mission is not clear, nor is its host country. Before arriving in Rome, Mr. Kerry said in Paris that the Syrian opposition needed additional assistance and indicated that the United States and its partners planned to provide some. The assistance represents the first time that the United States has publicly committed itself to sending nonlethal support for armed factions that are battling the Assad government in the two-year-old uprising.
One major goal of the administration is to help the opposition build up its credibility within Syria by providing traditional government services to the civilian population. Since the conflict erupted two years ago, the United States has sent $365 million in humanitarian aid to Syrians. But the supplies Mr. Kerry announced fell well short of the weapons and equipment Syrian rebels have requested. And it remained unclear how such modest support might change Mr. Assad’s calculations about his ability to retain power, which Mr. Kerry has repeatedly said is Mr. Assad’s goal.
American officials have been increasingly worried that extremist members of the resistance against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, notably the Al Nusra Front, which the United States has asserted is affiliated with Al Qaeda, will take control of portions of Syria and cement its authority by providing public services, much as Hezbollah has done in Lebanon. In addition to the nonlethal aid, the United States is providing $60 million in assistance to help the political wing of the Syrian anti-Assad coalition improve the delivery of basic services like sanitation and education in areas it has already wrested from the government’s control.
“Some folks on the ground that we don’t support and whose interests do not align with ours are delivering some of that help,” Mr. Kerry said. Mr. Assad is “out of time and must be out of power,” Mr. Kerry said, after meeting with Moaz al-Khatib, the leader of the Syrian opposition coalition, during a conference in Rome of the so-called “Friends of Syria” countries that support the anti-Assad uprising in Syria.
To blunt the power of extremist groups, the United States wants to help the Syrian Opposition Council, the coalition of Syrian resistance leaders it backs and helped organize, deliver basic services in areas that have been wrested from the control of the Assad government. Defending the limited program of assistance to the Free Syrian Army, Mr. Kerry said that other countries would also provide help and that the “totality” of the effort would make an impression on Mr. Assad.
The aid package announced on Thursday is intended to support civilian efforts like sanitation projects, education, and security. Another major goal in providing assistance is to jump-start negotiations over a political transition by sending a message to Mr. Assad that the rebels would ultimately prevail on the ground. “We’re doing this, but other countries are doing other things,” Mr. Kerry said. But neither he nor any diplomat here provided details about that effort.
“He needs to know that he can’t shoot his way out of this,” Mr. Kerry said of Mr. Assad. None of the aid the United States has supplied has been sent to the Free Syrian Army fighters, who are doing battle with Mr. Assad. Rather, the distribution of assistance has been limited to local councils and unarmed groups. But this would change if the administration expanded its assistance. Britain is planning to provide more substantial nonlethal aid, which could include vehicles, bulletproof vests and night vision equipment, according to an American official. British officials have been consulting with their European counterparts about what sort of nonlethal aid might be allowed under the terms of European Union decisions and plans to announce its steps soon.
What remains off the table, at least as far as the White House is concerned, are weapons. President Obama last year rejected a proposal by the Central Intelligence Agency, the State Department and the Pentagon to arm a select cadre of rebels. American officials indicated Wednesday that the White House was still opposed to providing weapons. There has been speculation that the Obama administration might expand its program of support to the Free Syrian Army to include nonlethal equipment if rebel fighters use the initial assistance effectively and do not allow any of it to fall into the hands of extremists.
Still, one official said that the financing the United States planned to send to the resistance might indirectly help the rebels arm themselves as it might free up other funds to buy weapons. But Mr. Kerry provided no indication that such a phased expansion of nonlethal support was being planned by the White House.
The comments by Mr. Kerry and allied officials generated considerable expectations for the Thursday meeting, attended by Moaz al-Khatib, the leader of the Syrian opposition coalition, and other coalition members. American officials declined to discuss an ongoing covert program to train rebel fighters or the extent to which it has made a difference on the battlefield.
Earlier this week, Mr. Khatib had balked at attending the meeting, reflecting the deep disappointment in the Syrian opposition over what it feels is the failure of major powers to help it defeat Mr. Assad. But he relented after a phone call from Mr. Kerry, which was followed up by a call from Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Some members of the Syria opposition said they were disappointed by the results of the Rome session.
Mr. Kerry’s meeting with Mr. Khatib was his first with the Syrian opposition leader. Mr. Kerry said the input from the opposition would enable the administration to assess what steps were needed. The United States is not the only nation that is planning to take the step of sending nonlethal assistance to armed groups. Last week, the European Union agreed to a British proposal that nonlethal equipment could be sent. Britain and other members are currently discussing precisely what sort of equipment would be allowed under the terms of the European decision. “It is obvious that the real support is absent,” said Dr. Walid al-Bunni, a member of the anti-Assad coalition. What the resistance needed most, he said, was weapons. “What we want is to stop the Scuds launched on Aleppo, to stop the warplanes that are bombing our town and villages.”
“In the face of such murder and threat of instability, our policy cannot stay static as the weeks go by,” the British foreign secretary, William Hague, said after a meeting with Mr. Kerry in London on Monday. “We must significantly increase support for the Syrian opposition. We are preparing to do just that.” The French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, also called for increased support to the opposition after a meeting with Mr. Kerry in Paris on Wednesday, although he did not specify what sort of aid France planned to provide. Mr. Khatib, for is part, delivered an emotional statement in which he urged that steps be taken to establish a humanitarian corridor to the besieged city of Homs and complained that many in the West were too quick to judge some members of the opposition as Islamic extremists because of “the length of a beard of a fighter.”
“If we want to have a new regime, we have to encourage the opposition,” Mr. Fabius said. “We have to help the situation to move.” “Bashar Assad, for once in your life, behave as a human being,” Mr. Khatib said. “Bashar Assad, you have to make at least one wise decision in your life for the future of your country.”
But to some Syrians, the American assistance falls short amid worsening violence. Abou Shadi, a refugee from the Syrian city of Aleppo, said Mr. Assad had to go. Facing divisions within the Syrian opposition about the value of the meeting, Mr. Khatib had initially decided to boycott the conference until he was encouraged to attend in phone calls from Mr. Kerry and Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
“We want nothing from the international community, neither food nor arms! We want them to topple him,” he said. One aim of the $60 million in assistance is to help the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, the umbrella resistance group that the United States backs and has helped shape, build up its credibility within the country and contest the influence of extremist groups like the Al Nusra Front, an Al Qaeda affiliated organization.

Michael R. Gordon reported from Rome, and Mark Landler from Washington. Christine Hauser contributed reporting from New York, and Hwaida Saad from Beirut, Lebanon.

 American officials have become increasingly concerned that the Al Nusra Front is making inroads among the Syrian population by dispersing assistance in the areas it controls, replicating a successful strategy used by Hezbollah, the militant Lebanese Shiite organization that is a politically powerful force in Lebanon.
“The stakes are really high, and we can’t risk letting this country, in the heart of the Middle East, being destroyed by vicious autocrats or hijacked by the extremists,” Mr. Kerry said.
It is also an opportunity for the Syrian opposition coalition to develop the sort of governance skills it will need to play an important role in any political transition that might follow Mr. Assad’s departure from power.
The funds are to be used in the areas the Syrian opposition coalition controls to improve education, sanitation and local security. Another goal is to strengthen the rule of law in these areas and discourage vigilante justice or revenge killings.
To carry out the program, the United States plans to send technical advisers to the headquarters of the Syrian opposition. The advisers will be draw from nongovernmental organizations that have experience in these areas.
The $60 million is on top of more than $50 million in assistance, including communications equipment and radios, that the United States has already provided to local Syrian opposition councils. The new funds must be approved by Congress, which is caught up in acrimonious politics over how to cut the American budget deficit. But Mr. Kerry said that he has been in touch with Congressional leaders and that he expected the approval to come soon.
The United States has also provided $385 million in humanitarian aid to the burgeoning flood of refugees outside Syria and displaced people inside the country.
After Rome, Mr. Kerry heads to Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar — all nations that have a stake in the outcome in Syria if Mr. Assad is dislodged and some of whom are believed to be sending arms to the opposition.
Abou Shadi, a Syrian refugee from Aleppo who had fled to Lebanon said that the international community was not offering the main things the city’s residents want: security and an end to Mr. Assad. “We want nothing from the international community, neither food nor arms,” he said. “We want them to topple him.”

Reporting was contributed by Anne Barnard and Hwaida Saad from Beirut, Lebanon, Mark Landler from Washington and Christine Hauser from New York.