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| Arabia |
| Saudi prince calls for Syrian rebels to be armed |
| 2013-01-25 |
| A senior member of Saudi Arabia's monarchy called on Friday for Syrian rebels to be given anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons to "level the playing field" in their battle against President Bashar al-Assad. Insurgents in Syria have seized territory in the north of the country and control suburbs to the east and south of the capital, but Assad's air power and continued army strength have limited their advances 22 months into the conflict. "I'm not in government so I don't have to be diplomatic. I assume we're sending weapons and if we were not sending weapons it would be terrible mistake on our part," said Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former intelligence chief and brother of Saudi Arabia's foreign minister. "You have to level the playing field. Most of the weapons the rebels have come from captured Syrian stocks and defectors bringing their weapons," he said at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos. "What is needed are sophisticated, high-level weapons that can bring down planes, can take out tanks at a distance. This is not getting through." |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #2 Update NEW TALIBAN IN SYRIA? Noting that Jordanian forces were still fighting Taliban militants in Afghanistan alongside NATO troops, he said: "The new Taliban we are going to have to deal with will be in Syria." Even in the most optimistic scenario, it would take at least three years to "clean them up" after the fall of the Assad government, the monarch said. He called for major powers to craft "a real and inclusive transition plan" for Syria, saying the army must be preserved intact to form the backbone of any new system and avoid the anarchy that prevailed in Iraq after the U.S.-led 2003 invasion. |
| Posted by: tipper 2013-01-25 11:59 |
| #1 Prince Turki ought to keep in mind that those same weapons may very well end up being used against the Magic Kingdom later. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2013-01-25 11:55 |