In a surprise move, top US Senator John McCain, known to be a strong proponent of arming Syrian rebel forces in their protracted campaign to bring down the Assad regime, slipped into the war-torn country on Monday from Turkey and held meetings with rebel leaders.
A critic of the Obama administration for not intervening in the long-running conflict that is said to have claimed over 80,000 lives so far, the Republican Senator used his visit to Turkey for the border crossing and holding meetings with Gen. Salim Idris, who leads the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army, and several other rebel commanders.
In Washington, McCain’s spokesman Brian Rogers confirmed the Senator’s visit and meeting with the rebel leaders, but declined to provide details about the trip that reportedly lasted several hours and was facilitated by the Syrian Emergency Task Force. There was no immediate comment from the White House on the McCain move.
During the talks, the rebel leaders wanted Washington to assist them with heavy weapons, a no-fly zone, airstrikes on the Syrian regime and the forces of Hezbollah. In an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast, Gen. Idris praised the McCain visit, the first by a high-ranking American leader since the bloody civil war erupted more than two years ago.
“The visit of Senator McCain to Syria is very important and very useful especially at this time. We need American help to have change on the ground; we are now in a very critical situation,” the publication quoted Idris as saying.
“What we want from the US government is to take the decision to support the Syrian revolution with weapons and ammunition, anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft weapons. Of course we want a no-fly zone and we ask for strategic strikes against Hezbollah both inside lebanon and inside Syria,” Idris said, adding, “We need American help to have change on the ground; we are now in a very critical situation.”