{"id":14695,"date":"2012-10-06T20:58:39","date_gmt":"2012-10-07T00:58:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/?p=14695"},"modified":"2012-10-06T20:58:39","modified_gmt":"2012-10-07T00:58:39","slug":"us-authorizes-financial-support-for-the-free-syrian-army","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2012\/10\/us-authorizes-financial-support-for-the-free-syrian-army\/","title":{"rendered":"US Authorizes Financial Support For the Free Syrian Army"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Free Syrian Army soldiers flash v-signs and raise their rifles in Azaz, north Syria July 25, 2012. (photo by REUTERS\/Umit Bektas )<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A US group that supports the Free Syrian Army has received a waiver from the US Treasury Department authorizing it to provide logistical and financial support to the armed Syrian resistance.<\/span><\/p>\n

The waiver was received from the Treasury Department Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) last week, Brian Sayers, of the<\/span> Syrian Support Group<\/span><\/a><\/span>, told Al- Monitor in an interview Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe OFAC decision is huge,\u201d Sayers said. \u201cIt gets us the leeway to support the Free Syrian Army in broad terms.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Syrian Support Group hired Sayers, who previously spent six years working in NATO operations in Brussels and Kosovo, four months ago to be the Washington agent for the group.<\/span><\/p>\n

With backers from the Syrian exile community in the United States and Canada, the Syrian Support Group’s goal \u201chas always been to support the Free Syrian Army in different ways,\u201d Sayers said.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the constellation of<\/span> Syrian opposition<\/span><\/a><\/span> and exile organizations and personalities, the Syrian Support Group \u201csees its niche as to provide direct support for the FSA, and to stand up the Free Syrian Army as the future Syrian Army,\u201d he explained. \u201cThat requires both short term things \u2014 financial operations, logistics support, communications\u2014 but also long-term support: security sector reform, a training doctrine.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the near-term, the “OFAC letter allows for providing financial, communications and logistics support to the FSA,\u201d Sayers said. That could include paying for FSA salaries and provisions, as well as \u201ccommunications equipment, satellite imagery, paying for satellite imagery, logistical support for transport, which could mean everything from buying a 4×4 to supporting someone\u2019s travel to Turkey.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On their more intermediate term wish-list, \u201cour ask is intelligence support, drone support, eyes in the sky, an intelligence platform,\u201d Sayers said. Syria\u2019s rebels \u201cneed both intelligence and weapons,\u201d as they seek to carve out and protect safe areas on the ground in Syria, and try to secure the<\/span> defection of more members of the Syrian military.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, one Syrian source, speaking anonymously, suggested the Syrian Support Group\u2019s mission is not only about lobbying the US government to provide support to the FSA, but also the reverse: to help turn the FSA into a more organized entity that could receive intelligence and other assistance from Western security agencies.<\/span><\/p>\n

The FSA has formed a nine-member military council, comprised of the commanders from 10 of Syria\u2019s provinces. Although they have previously operated in a more decentralized manner, the Free Syrian Army commanders have recently increased their coordination, including holding conference calls almost daily, Sayers said.<\/span><\/p>\n

This past week, all nine members of the Free Syrian Army military council signed a previously unpublished<\/span> “Proclamation of Principles,”<\/span><\/a><\/span> pledging to respect democracy, multi-ethnic and sectarian pluralism, and the authority of Syria\u2019s future, elected, civilian leadership. \u201cWe believe in a free and democratic Syria where all Syrian citizens, regardless of their ethnicity, creed, religion or class shall enjoy equal rights and live in liberty, justice and peace,\u201d the document reads. \u201cWe will do our utmost to uphold international humanitarian law and norms, including by treating prisoners humanely, even as the Assad regime engages in crimes against humanity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

However, one figure the FSA is unlikely to support as a Syrian opposition unity leader is the recently defected Gen. Manaf Tlas, who arrived in Turkey on Thursday. Reports this week have suggested the US is eyeing Tlas, formerly a close friend of Bashar al-Assad and the son of Hafez al-Assad\u2019s Defense Minister, for that role.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Sayers said, in his opinion, the US government has not decided yet.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn our briefings [with US officials], we get asked what do we think of the guy. I think they are asking us to try to get more information. They have not made up their mind,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tlas had considerable means at his disposal to facilitate his defection, Sayers said, including being able to get his family safely out ahead of time. But Tlas and his father are seen as having been too close for too long to the Assad regime, and would have little support among Syria\u2019s rebels, he suggested.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA Chalabi would be the last thing you want,\u201d Sayers said, referring to the Iraqi exile, Ahmad Chalabi, who wooed American neo-conservatives to overthrow Saddam Hussein only to turn out to have no base of support in Iraq. \u201cNobody wants that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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