AFP, Washington, 7 Feb 2012 – Warning that ‘diplomacy is pretty well exhausted’, top Republican US Senator John McCain said Tuesday the time has come to consider arming the outgunned opposition to President Bashar al-Assad.
‘We should start considering all options, including arming the opposition. The bloodletting has got to stop,’ McCain, his party’s top member on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a frequent White House critic, told reporters.
But the White House and US State Department poured cold water on the senator’s suggestion, which he made as he met with visiting Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, in Washington for talks focused on Iran.
‘We are not considering that step right now,’ said President Barack Obama’s spokesman Jay Carney, who told reporters that Washington was ‘exploring the possibility of providing humanitarian aid to Syrians.’
‘We don’t think more arms into Syria is the answer,’ said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.
‘We think the answer is to get to a national democratic dialogue, for the violence to stop, for the regime’s tanks to come out of the cities and then for monitors to be able to go back in,’ she said.
Nuland also rejected parallels between the clashes in Syria and the uprising that — with the help of a NATO-led bombing campaign — overthrew Libyan strongman Moamer Kadhafi, saying that was ‘a completely different situation.’
McCain later allowed that it might be a challenge to ensure ‘that the arms get to the right people’ and are ‘used effectively’ but insisted ‘lots of people are thinking about it’ including among Syria’s Middle East neighbors.
‘All the options ought to be considered, maybe a no-movement zone, maybe a sanctuary area. But all of those have got to be discussed,’ McCain said, telling reporters ‘diplomacy is pretty well exhausted.’
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, a Democrat, did not immediately rule out McCain’s suggestion but stressed he ‘would have to be given a lot more information about what the implications of that are.’
‘I would want to know what the pros and cons are, what the implications are, what the realistic possibilities are. I’d have to know a lot more before I could reach a conclusion as to whether that’s a sensible thing to do,’ said Levin.
‘The problem is, you never know what you’re arming,’ said Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat.
‘It is very hard, I mean, there is not an opposition army, per se, so you don’t know who you’re arming. And I’m opposed to that, I don’t think that’s a solution,’ he told reporters.
Feinstein said she was ‘absolutely shocked’ that Russia and China on Saturday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution proposed by Arab and European nations which aimed to support an Arab League plan to end the Syria crisis.
‘They killed the only effort that’s ongoing by the Arab powers to monitor the situation and try to work out a solution,’ she said. ‘I wish they would reverse course.’
The comments came a day after the United States closed its embassy in Syria and pulled out all its staff, amid an escalating crackdown on the opposition by the Assad regime.
Human rights groups say the violence in Syria has claimed some 6,000 lives since the outbreak of the revolt almost a year ago.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, a Democrat, called for a new diplomatic push to get Russia and China to back UN action and cautioned against seeing parallels between Libya and Syria.
‘This is a very different playing field, very different set of players, very different set of possible prospects,’ he said as he met with Lieberman. ‘I think we have to approach it differently.’