Geneva Talks in Jeopardy Over US Arms for Syria Rebels

Geneva Talks in Jeopardy Over US Arms for Syria Rebels

Afternoon Talks Scrapped After Reports on US Arms Shipments

by Jason Ditz, 

Yesterday’s report confirming the US Congress has secretly funded sending arms to Syrian rebels through the rest of this fiscal year are having a major, deleterious impact on peace talks in Geneva, and may be threatening the viability of those talks.

The revelation dramatically undercut US claims that Geneva II was supposed to settle the conflict with a peaceful transition of power, and officialssay there was concern that the US is overtly trying to undermine the deal.

The afternoon was supposed to center around talks about the “transition,” with the Syrian National Coalition (SNC) to present their proposal. Instead, afternoon talks were cancelled outright as all the focus was on the US arms shipments.

The State Department downplayed the problem, insisting they support the “moderate opposition,” but in a rebellion dominated by al-Qaeda, it isn’t even clear who that is anymore, and the specter of the US throwing more arms into the conflict is not welcome, no matter the excuse.

http://news.antiwar.com/2014/01/28/geneva-talks-in-jeopardy-over-us-arms-for-syria-rebels/