NEW YORK // The United States could begin arming selected Syrian rebels next month after some congressional concerns over weapons falling into the hands of Al Qaeda-linked militants were eased.
Mike Rogers, chair of the House of Representatives intelligence committee, which has been briefed behind closed doors on Barack Obama's plans, said his committee believes "we are in a position that the administration can move forward" with its plan to provide arms to some parts of the opposition.
Mr Rogers and other members of Congress have expressed concerns that the US president Barack Obama's plan to arm the rebels, which would be run by the CIA, did not do enough either to ensure weapons did not reach extremists or to tilt the balance of military power away from the Syrian regime.
Mr Obama had promised to work with Congress to implement the plan. The Senate intelligence committee gave its tentative approval on July 12.
But congressional sign-off on aid to the rebels came as the top US military officer warned of the high costs and risks of significant military intervention.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen Martin Dempsey said a campaign to redress the balance in favour of rebels fighting to topple Bashar Al Assad would be "an act of war" that would cost billions of dollars and could backfire on the US.
Gen Dempsey listed five options the military had prepared for: training and advising the opposition, limited air strikes, a no-fly zone, a buffer zone and controlling chemical weapons. He said that the first option would cost US$500 million (Dh1.836 billion) a year, and the others at least $1bn a month.
The options "would likely further the narrow military objective of helping the opposition and placing more pressure on the regime," he said.
But he warned: "Once we take action, we should be prepared for what comes next. Deeper involvement is hard to avoid . we could inadvertently empower extremists or unleash the very chemical weapons we seek to control."
Gen Dempsey's warning came in a written response to senators John McCain and Carl Levin, who had questioned him on his views on Syria during a confrontational hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee last week.
Mr McCain threatened to block Gen Dempsey's nomination for a second term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs if he failed to respond to questions on America's military options.
The US military has been critical of intervening directly in the Syrian conflict, citing a dearth of options for low-level intervention and the heavy cost of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last decade.
"We have learnt from the past 10 years that it is not enough to simply alter the balance of military power without careful consideration of what is necessary in order to preserve a functioning state," Mr Dempsey wrote.
He said the option supported by Mr McCain, a no-fly zone over Syria, would cost $1bn per month.
The more limited option of creating buffer zones within Syria near the borders with Jordan and Turkey would still entail thousands of US troops on the ground, who could be the target of missile strikes, and would cost upwards of $1bn a month.
Gen Dempsey's warning could sharpen divides within the administration over how deeply to become involved in the conflict, now entering its third year. The Obama administration has so far been reluctant to intervene directly in the civil war in which more than 100,000 Syrians have been killed and about three million displaced.
Many members of Congress have also been sceptical of direct military intervention, and those fears have grown as the conflict in Syria has polarised along sectarian lines. Extremist groups within the opposition, including Al Nusra Front, which the US considers a terrorist organisation, are among the most organised fighting units.
Mr Rogers said there were still "strong reservations" about the administration's plans within the intelligence committee, despite the agreement to move forward.
"We have been working with Congress to overcome some of the concerns that they initially had, and we believe that those concerns have been addressed and that we will now be able to proceed," a source said.
The timeline for the covert delivery of the arms, which are generally thought will consist of rifles and basic anti-tank weapons, is still uncertain, but rebels have said they expect to begin receiving them next month.
Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN special envoy to Syria, said he was disappointed by the Congressional approval.
"Arms do not make peace," he said. "We would like to see the delivery of arms stopped to all sides."
tkhan@thenational.ae
* Additional reporting by Reuters
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Lyrics: Al Hadi Adam; Composer: Mohammed Abdel Wahab
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Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
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A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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Day 1, Abu Dhabi Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Dimuth Karunaratne had batted with plenty of pluck, and no little skill, in getting to within seven runs of a first-day century. Then, while he ran what he thought was a comfortable single to mid-on, his batting partner Dinesh Chandimal opted to stay at home. The opener was run out by the length of the pitch.
Stat of the day - 1 One six was hit on Day 1. The boundary was only breached 18 times in total over the course of the 90 overs. When it did arrive, the lone six was a thing of beauty, as Niroshan Dickwella effortlessly clipped Mohammed Amir over the square-leg boundary.
The verdict Three wickets down at lunch, on a featherbed wicket having won the toss, and Sri Lanka’s fragile confidence must have been waning. Then Karunaratne and Chandimal's alliance of precisely 100 gave them a foothold in the match. Dickwella’s free-spirited strokeplay meant the Sri Lankans were handily placed at 227 for four at the close.
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Yemen's Bahais and the charges they often face
The Baha'i faith was made known in Yemen in the 19th century, first introduced by an Iranian man named Ali Muhammad Al Shirazi, considered the Herald of the Baha'i faith in 1844.
The Baha'i faith has had a growing number of followers in recent years despite persecution in Yemen and Iran.
Today, some 2,000 Baha'is reside in Yemen, according to Insaf.
"The 24 defendants represented by the House of Justice, which has intelligence outfits from the uS and the UK working to carry out an espionage scheme in Yemen under the guise of religion.. aimed to impant and found the Bahai sect on Yemeni soil by bringing foreign Bahais from abroad and homing them in Yemen," the charge sheet said.
Baha'Ullah, the founder of the Bahai faith, was exiled by the Ottoman Empire in 1868 from Iran to what is now Israel. Now, the Bahai faith's highest governing body, known as the Universal House of Justice, is based in the Israeli city of Haifa, which the Bahais turn towards during prayer.
The Houthis cite this as collective "evidence" of Bahai "links" to Israel - which the Houthis consider their enemy.
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