RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — For months, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been funneling money and small arms to Syria’s rebels but have refused to provide heavier weapons, like shoulder-fired missiles, that could allow opposition fighters to bring down government aircraft, take out armored vehicles, and turn the war’s tide.
While they have publicly called for arming the rebels, they have held back, officials in both countries said, in part because they have been discouraged by the United States, which fears the heavier weapons could end up in the hands of terrorists.
As a result, the rebels have just enough weapons to maintain a stalemate, the war grinds on, and more jihadist militants join the fray every month.
‘‘You can give the rebels AKs, but you can’t stop the Syrian regime’s military with AKs,’’ said Khalid al-Attiyah, a state minister for foreign affairs in Qatar. Providing the rebels with heavier weapons ‘‘has to happen,’’ he added. ‘‘But first we need the backing of the United States, and preferably the UN.’’
Saudi officials here said the United States was not barring them from providing shoulder-fired missiles but was warning about the risks. The Saudis and Qataris said they hoped to persuade their allies that those risks could be overcome....
US support for such weapons transfers is unlikely to materialize any time soon. President Obama’s administration has made clear that it has no desire to deepen its efforts, mostly providing logistical support for the rebels....
Related: "US intelligence agents have helped funnel arms to rebel groups"
And yet so often I am told we they not.
Saudi Arabia has long had an antagonistic relationship with the government of President Bashar Assad in Syria and sees itself as the protector of Syria’s Sunni majority in a country governed by Assad’s Alawite minority. But the prospect of an increasingly sectarian civil war in Syria is deeply troubling to many here, where the Afghan jihad spawned a generation of battle-tested zealots who returned home and waged a bloody insurgency that was brought under control only recently.
Who are the "terrorists" again?
The Saudi government must also manage the rising demand for greater action to defend the rebels against the Syrian government. Behind these political fault lines lies a deep sectarian hostility: Saudis are increasingly angry about the mistreatment of their fellow Sunni Muslims in Syria by an Alawite regime they see as heretical.
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