U.S. moves closer to intervention in Syria with show of support for opposition

April 2, 2012 – SYRIA — The United States and dozens of other countries moved closer Sunday to direct intervention in the fighting in Syria, with Arab nations pledging $100 million to pay opposition fighters and the Obama administration agreeing to send communications equipment to help rebels organize and evade Syria’s military, according to participants gathered here. The moves reflected a growing consensus, at least among the officials who met here this weekend under the rubric “Friends of Syria,” that mediation efforts by the U.N. peace envoy, Kofi Annan, were failing to halt the violence in Syria and that more forceful action was needed. With Russia and China blocking measures that could open the way for military action by the United Nations, the countries lined up against the government of President Bashar Assad have sought to bolster Syria’s beleaguered opposition through means that seemed to stretch the definition of humanitarian assistance. The offer to provide salaries and communications equipment to rebel fighters known as the Free Syrian Army — with the hopes that the money might encourage government soldiers to defect, officials said — is bringing the loose Friends of Syria coalition to the edge of a proxy war against Assad’s government and its international supporters, principally Iran and Russia. Direct assistance to the rebel fighters, even as Assad’s loyalists press on with a brutal crackdown, risked worsening a conflict that already has led to about 9,000 deaths and could plunge Syria into a protracted civil war. Ghalioun did not directly address the financial assistance from the Arab countries — including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — but he added, “This is high noon for action.” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the conference that Assad had defied Annan’s efforts to broker an end to the fighting and begin a political transition. She said that new assaults began in Idlib and Aleppo provinces even after Assad publicly accepted the plan a week ago, which called for an immediate cease-fire followed by negotiations with the opposition. “The world must judge Assad by what he does, not by what he says,” Clinton said in a statement to officials, who were seated around an enormous rectangular table. “And we cannot sit back and wait any longer.” –Mercury News