DOHA: US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Saturday that Syria militants need further support to be able to address what he described as the “imbalance” in the crisis in the Arab country.
Kerry was addressing foreign ministers of Friends of Syria group which include Egypt, France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates at a conference on arming foreign-backed militants in Syria in Qatari capital of Doha on Saturday.
Kerry in his speech said that the Syria militants need further support “to be able to address the imbalance on the ground.”
“The United States and other countries here — in their various ways, each choosing its own approach — will increase the scope and scale of assistance to the political and military opposition,” he added.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said that arming the militants is the only way to achieve what he called peace in Syria.
On June 14, US President Barack Obama ordered his administration to provide the foreign-backed militants in Syria with more sophisticated weapons, claiming that the Syrian government had used “chemical weapons” against the militants and thus crossed Washington’s “red line.”
Damascus has rejected the allegations as “lies.”
Israeli President Shimon Peres and British officials have voiced support for Washington’s arming of the militants in Syria.
On Friday, the militants announced that they had received new weapons that could lead to “changes” in war against the Syrian government.
Unrest has gripped Syria since March 2011, and many people, including large numbers of Syrian security forces, have been killed in the unrest.
The Syrian government maintains that the chaos in the country is being orchestrated from outside and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.
