France looking at ways to 'safely' arm Syria's rebels
The French government is considering how it can provide advanced weaponry to Syria's rebels, but with safeguards that could limit the weapons from falling into the wrong hands.
The French government is considering how it can provide advanced weaponry to Syria's rebels, but with safeguards that could limit the weapons from falling into the wrong hands.
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With the legal obstacles to arming Syria's rebels overcome with the expiration of the EU arms embargo, France is now turning its attention to overcoming a major logistical obstacle: how to provide weapons to the rebels without letting jihadist factions later use those weapons against Western targets.
The technological superiority of President Bashar al-Assad's forces has been a key stumbling block to rebel success on the ground in Syria. While the rebels are believed to receive regular supplies of light weapons from Gulf states opposed to the Assad regime, they have not had access to advanced armaments, particularly anti-aircraft weapons needed to counter the government's jets and helicopters.
Although Western governments have considered supplying anti-aircraft weaponry to the rebels, the fear that groups like Jabhat al-Nusra, the Islamist rebel faction declared a terrorist group by the US, might get a hold on such weapons has so far won out.
But the Associated Press reports that the French government is looking at several means of technologically leashing advanced weapons to prevent their use against the West.
Last week, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told a parliamentary panel that "there are such-and-such types of arms that can be ... triggered in some conditions, and neutralized in other conditions." A French diplomat provided further explanation of the technology being considered, the AP reported today.
AP writes that according to a European munitions-company representative, such safeguards are not usually part of weapon designs, but could be added after manufacturing, likely by their government purchasers. And the alterations -- or "control enablers" -- could also restrict the range of anti-aircraft missiles, according to Matt Schroeder, director of the arms sales monitoring project at the Federation of American Scientists.
The urgency of the debate over whether and how to supply arms to the rebels ratcheted up a notch this week with the fall of Qusayr to Assad's forces on Wednesday. The retaking of the strategic town after rebels were driven out "will help strengthen the regime鈥檚 control of the key highway linking Damascus to the coastal port of Tartous, which bypasses Qusayr," reports 海角大神.
A Syrian government official told the AP that with the fall of Qusayr, the regime will be turning its focus towards Homs聽鈥� once the center of the uprising against Assad 鈥� in a series of "quick, successive attacks" against the towns around the city. Syrian state media, however, say the next target will be Aleppo in the north.