The Obama administration may green-light shipments of shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles to Syrian opponents of Bashar al-Assad and expand covert CIA training and assistance in an apparent bid to repair frayed relations with Saudi Arabia.
“It is ridiculous, unjust, and outrageous that the U.S. is supposedly seeking to repair relations with Saudi Arabia by escalating the killing in Syria,” said Robert Naiman, policy director for Just Foreign Policy, in an interview with Common Dreams. “In whose interest is this?”
President Obama is mulling over whether to okay shipments of man-portable air defense systems (MANPADs), according to statements by an anonymous U.S. official cited in an Associated Press article published Friday. The Saudi government has ostensibly refrained from sending MANPADs to the Syrian opposition due to the past opposition of the Obama administration, which has shipped smaller weapons and ammunition. AP reports that the actual shipments of the missiles could come from the Saudis if Obama gives the go-ahead.
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