Gulf Countries to Pay Rebel ‘Salaries’ in Syria

Troops Paid to Fight on Either Side of War

The international funding of the Syrian Civil War looks to become considerably more organized today, with reports that a number of gulf nations have agreed to provide cash to pay “salaries” for Syria’s Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels.

The effort is aimed at convincing more members of the Syrian military to defect into the FSA, with the promise that they’ll keep getting paid no matter which side of the civil war they actually fight on.

How reliable these salaries will be is likely to remain a question, as a number of Arab League nations, once eagerly on board to provide funding and arms to the rebels, have since expressed reticence, primarily a result of a string of major FSA defeats.

The FSA, for its part, has been pressing for international aid for some time, and has insisted that their failures are a result of a shortage of ammunition, because previous pledges of weapons and ammo never materialized. Much of the FSA is made up of defectors, and many brought their weapons with them, but did not bring much ammo at all.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.