U.S. and Turkey to Tighten Coordination on Syria
Turkey and the United States agreed Saturday to accelerate preparations for the possible fall of Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, creating a formal bilateral team to manage helping the opposition, providing aid to fleeing refugees and planning for worst-case outcomes that include a chemical weapons attack.
At a news conference here, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Turkey's foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said that with the situation in Syria growing more dire — as the battle for Aleppo continues to rage — it was time to create a nerve center for information sharing and planning. They said a unified task force with intelligence, military and political leaders from both countries would be formed immediately to track Syria's present and plan for its future.
"What the minister and I agreed to was to have very intensive operational planning," Mrs. Clinton said. "We have been closely coordinating over the course of this conflict, but now we need to get into the real details."
Mrs. Clinton, who also announced an additional $5.5 million in humanitarian assistance for refugees, left open the possibility of setting up a no-fly zone, suggesting that the new planning team assigned to perform an "intense analysis" of all options could be a precursor to more direct assistance. But she stopped short of describing specific plans for helping Syria's opposition fighters now, or the timing.
The day after protesters in Aleppo chanted "Arm us with antiaircraft weapons," American officials said the United States remained concerned about providing weapons or air support because it could draw a violent response, not just from Syria, but also from Russia, Iran and other allies of Mr. Assad's that have strongly opposed direct foreign intervention to topple the government.
Hinting at fears of a wider war, Mrs. Clinton said Saturday that the goal was to hasten the removal of Mr. Assad, but "not in a way that produces even more death, injury and destruction."
Turkey is a natural hub for any kind of action in Syria. A former Syrian ally, it declared its allegiance with the rebels; many Syrian opposition groups are based in Turkey, and its Syrian border has become the main distribution point for weapons and assistance to the rebels, who have opened an off-again-on-again supply corridor from the border to Aleppo.
On Saturday, Mr. Davutoglu spoke more forcefully than Mrs. Clinton on the need for action. Describing the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo and the plight of refugees fleeing on roads under attack from Syrian forces, he said, "The international community needs to take some very decisive steps to stop this."
But in practice, analysts said the United States and Turkey, along with a wider group of allies known as the Friends of Syria, continue to hold back. Saturday's announcement still amounts to a policy of life support, some argue, giving enough help to keep the rebel movement alive and minimizing intervention while figuring out what to do next.
"The friends of Syria have developed a stake in making sure the opposition is simply not wiped out," said Ilter Turan, an international relations professor at Bilgi University in Istanbul. "That becomes the ruler to measure this by."
After 17 months of conflict and at least five months of the American focus on "nonlethal assistance," some signs of international help have recently been seen. More rebel commanders in Syria have satellite phones and ways to mask their communications. Qatar and Saudi Arabia have been leading the effort to arm Mr. Assad's opponents, and United States intelligence officials have helped select recipients, according to American officials.
Rebels and activists say such assistance so far has been nowhere near enough.
"We don't want food or money; all we need are weapons. We are running low," said Abu Mohammed, a rebel brigade commander in Aleppo. "We need antiaircraft missiles and we have a big need for live ammunition."
The meeting between Turkey and the United States was part of a flurry of diplomatic activity that underlines the severity of the crisis and the fears of escalating war.
Arab foreign ministers plan to meet on Sunday in Jidda, Saudi Arabia, to discuss developments in Syria and to consider selecting a replacement for Kofi Annan, the United Nations-Arab League envoy who resigned this month. And on Thursday, Iran, Syria's main ally, hosted its own meeting of 30 countries to discuss Syria — another sign that the world's powers see Syria as a proxy for wider battles.
On Saturday, a high-ranking diplomat told Iranian news media that the country had evacuated hundreds of its citizens from Syria.
"In the past few days we have succeeded in transferring some of these dear people back to our Islamic republic," said Iran's ambassador to Syria, Mohammad Raouf Sheibani.
The move comes after the recent kidnapping of 48 Iranians, who Tehran says are pilgrims but Syrian rebels accuse of being members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
In the meantime, the war grinds on. Syria's state-run news agency reported that rebels had captured one of its television crews in Damascus, the latest indication that at least some in the opposition consider all supporters of the government their enemies.
Rebels said that there was fierce fighting Saturday not only in Aleppo, but also in Damascus.
Despite pleas for foreign help, the rebels said they would find their own ways to survive and advance. On Saturday, fighters from the main brigade in Aleppo posted a video purportedly showing the successful seizure of a government weapons arsenal. Dozens of automatic weapons stood in piles alongside steel green boxes of ammunition as rebels could be heard declaring, "God is great."
Even if the United States and its allies do not come to help, Abu Mohammed said, the revolt will survive. "I'm not worried — they haven't helped before, and yet we keep fighting," he said. "We rely on God; we are all martyrs for the revolution."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/world/middleeast/us-and-turkey-tighten-coordination-on-syria.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all