Hurriyet
8th March, 2012
Syrian rebels are being armed by outside forces, including Turkey, according to reports and officials from Russia, Iran and Egypt.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister accused the U.S. government and Arab countries of arming the rebels a few days after talks with Russianofficials. Robert Baer, a former CIAagent serving in the Middle East, claimed last August that the rebels were not receiving weapons only from Iraq, but from Turkey as well.
Similar allegations have been voiced by Times journalists Richard Beeston and Charles Bremner, who said Turkey was turning a blind eye to shipments of arms to Syrian dissidents. The allegations were immediately denied by the Turkish Foreign Ministry.
Egypt has also warned against an upcoming civil war if the flow of weapons from outside forces continues, echoing previous statements by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
NATO training rebels
Several media outlets in the region have claimed that NATO bases are being used to train rebels, including camps in the eastern Anatolian province of Hakkari.
Qatar and Saudi Arabia are reportedly supplying funding for the training.
WikiLeaks reveals US presence
There is a strong and active NATO presence in Syria’s region, according to the leaked emails of a U.S.-based global security analysis company, Stratfor, that were recently released publicly by the whistle-blowing site WikiLeaks.
An analysis director at Stratfor describes U.S. teams in the region as “ready and focused on training the dissident forces” in an email about a Pentagon meeting.
Stratfor is known as a shadow CIA and has reportedly been involved in massive intelligence gathering.
March/08/2012
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