Plea for US arms to fight Assad air force

AFP/Washington

The leader of the Syrian opposition made a powerful plea to a reluctant US administration yesterday for anti-aircraft weapons to end “the nightmare” of civilians under siege from daily barrel bombings.

At the start of his first official visit to Washington, Ahmed Jarba told a US think tank that opposition forces need “efficient weapons to face these attacks including air raids, so we can change the balance of power on the ground”.

This would “open the door for a real political solution”, he insisted, committing his Syrian National Coalition to ensuring that any weapons such as anti-aircraft missiles would not fall into the wrong hands.

Equipping the rebels with heavy weapons would both send a powerful signal to the Syrian regime and boost the rebels standing among an increasingly desperate population caught in the crossfire, opposition officials say privately.

Jarba also denounced as a “farce” plans by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to stand for re-election in polls set for next month, saying it would give him “a licence ... to kill his own people for many years to come.”

“He wants to run for office on the dead bodies of the Syrians,” Jarba told the US Institute of Peace on the eve of talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry as well as other senior White House and Pentagon officials.

Jarba denied that Assad was gaining the upper hand in the conflict, saying that in towns like Idlib and Aleppo as well as to the south on the coast, the opposition was “moving forward”.

But yesterday the rebels began to evacuate what had been their stronghold of Homs, under an unprecedented deal that hands the city and its shelled-out ruins back to the regime.

Jarba admitted Homs was “a very important symbol for the Syrian revolution” in which the “inhabitants gave everything”.

But its loss was “not the end of the world”, he said, adding that what was important was to save lives and “in all battles you have a rhythm” and the rebels would win the city back.