Arms Shipments to Syria Aid Jihadists, Officials Admit

Is Foreign Aid Turning Syria's Rebellion Into Terrorists?

Syria’s rebellion has long been split across a very visible line between secular military defectors and Sunni Islamists hoping to oust the current regime and turn the nation into a theocracy. And while Western statements tend to emphasize the former, it is the latter that is getting most of the weaponry.

That’s the news from a number of Western officials, who say that the vast majority of the weapons being shipped into the country are going to “exactly the ones we don’t want to have” them, the jihadist factions.

Having long dismissed the Syrian government’s claims that the rebels are “terrorists” as propaganda, the foreign aid seems to be making the claims true, propping up what were once relatively small terror-minded factions and sidelining the secular defectors.

US officials insist that they aren’t actually sending the weapons, and are claiming this proves the need for more “direct” involvement. Yet several past reports suggest that the US has been key in “facilitating” those weapons across the border from Turkey into Syria, and there is no reason to believe they will be any more efficient at smuggling US arms than Qatari arms into Syria.

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.