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War, War, War See other War, War, War Articles Title: British Politician: 3,500 Tons of Arms already Sent to Syria Rebels TEHRAN (FNA)- A former British Liberal Democrat leader called for pressure on Qatar and Saudi Arabia to cut off funding for arms for Syria insurgents since they have already received 3,500 tons of arms by help of CIA. “They do not need arms. It is an unchallenged figure that 3,500 tons of arms have been shipped in by way of Croatia with the assistance of the CIA, funded by the Saudis, funded by the Qataris, going almost exclusively to the more extremist groups,” Lord Ashdown, the former international high representative for Bosnia said in a debate according to British The Daily Telegraph. “I know where those weapons are coming from. They are the weapons left over from the Bosnian war. They are being shipped out in large measure through Croatian ports and airports and I can tell you they are making vast sums for corrupt forces in the Balkans.” Lord Ashdown described the rebels as “not a fit and proper collection of people for us to be providing arms to”. Lord Ashdown said he knew of “no occasion” when a route to peace was to provide more weapons. He said Syria was the “front line in a wider conflict”. “This is about the preparations some are deliberately making to have a wider religious conflict,” he said. He said there was a “really serious diplomatic route” to take to remove the “steam” out of the conflict. “If it is the case that Saudi Arabia and Qatar are today funding the very extremists against which we are fighting, why are we not using international pressure, the United States, the European Union, to persuade Saudi Arabia and Qatar to stop, to prevent this?” he said. “It seems to me we should not stumble towards arms when there is diplomacy still to be played out.” In mid-March, a report said that the United States has coordinated a massive airlift of arms to Syrian rebels from Croatia with the help of Britain and other European states, despite the continuing European Union arms embargo at the time. The paper said 3,000 tons of weapons dating back to the former Yugoslavia have been sent in 75 planeloads from Zagreb airport to the rebels, largely via Jordan since November. The story confirmed the origins of ex-Yugoslav weapons seen in growing numbers in rebel hands in online videos, as described last month by The Daily Telegraph and other newspapers, but suggested far bigger quantities than previously suspected. The shipments were allegedly paid for by Saudi Arabia at the bidding of the United States, with assistance on supplying the weapons organized through Turkey and Jordan, Syria's neighbors. But the report added that as well as from Croatia, weapons came "from several other European countries including Britain", without specifying if they were British-supplied or British-procured arms. British military advisers however are known to be operating in countries bordering Syria alongside French and Americans, offering training to rebel leaders and former Syrian army officers. The Americans are also believed to be providing rebels with training on how to use chemical weapons. The story in the Jutarnji List newspaper gave the fullest details yet of the arms shipments. The weapons, including rocket launchers, recoil-less guns and the M79 anti-tank weapon, have been seen in rebel hands in numerous videos, and were first spotted by an arms expert Eliot Higgins, who blogs under the name Brown Moses. He traced them moving from Deraa in the South, near the Jordanian border, to Aleppo and Idlib provinces in the North. Western officials told the New York Times that the weapons had been bought from Croatia by Saudi Arabia, and that they had been funneled to rebel groups. According to the Croat newspaper, the first cargo planes involved with the shipment were from Turkey, but most have been from Jordanian International Air Cargo, whose Russian-made Ilyushin jets have been seen regularly at Zagreb airport in recent months. Higgins has recently posted videos showing some of the Croat weapons in the hands of the extremist group Ahrar al-Sham. Although regarded as hostile to the West, it fights closely with other Free Syrian Army units regarded as acceptable recipients of weapons. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
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