The United States can tip the military balance toward the Syrian opposition, but it has refused to do so mainly because the rebels may not back U.S. interests once they seize power, U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Martin Dempsey was quoted by local media on Wednesday.
Contrary to many's expectation, the latest intervention by the Central Bank of Syria (CBS) has succeeded in scaling down the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar against the Syrian pound by nearly 50 percent within a very short period of time. Yet, experts think that the measure is only temporary and the Syrian pound may soon depreciate again.
The White House on Tuesday rejected a Russian claim that the Syrian rebels had used chemical weapons in their fighting against the government troops.
The new head of the main exiled opposition group, Syrian National Coalition (SNC), offered Sunday a truce in the Syrian central province of Homs during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV said.
The Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA) has started sending weapons to Jordan with a view to arming small groups of vetted Syrian rebels within a month, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
The United States will not rush to war in Syria as it did in the past in the region, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said on Sunday.
The Obama administration on Wednesday announced eased sanctions on the Syrian opposition, just as the United States and Britain were holding discussions on more efforts to aid the rebels in their fighting against the government troops.
Syrian troops have regained full control of the strategic central city of al-Qussair in the Homs province after two-week-long offensive.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al- Moallem said Wednesday that his government has no pre-conditions for holding peace talks, adding that President Bashar al-Assad will attend the 2014 presidential elections "if people want."
Russia and the United States are still divided over some issues about the international conference on Syria the two have agreed to organize, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Tuesday.
The United States on Monday denounced Hezbollah for siding with the Syrian government forces in their battle against the rebels in Syria's central city of al-Qussair.
The Syrian army on Sunday launched a wide-scale operation to recapture the border city of al-Qussair near Lebanon, and has regained large swathes of the strategic city, local media reported.
British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday called for greater efforts to end the protracted conflict in Syria, stressing that "there is no more urgent international task than this."
After Syria accused Israel of launching airstrikes on the country's military sites in Damascus, local media outlets and some Syrian and Lebanese analysts believed that there are three possible motives behind the attack.
The Syrian army has pinpointed targets inside Israel to strike in case of further Israeli attacks against Syria, the state TV said Sunday.
The Obama administration is considering providing lethal weapons to Syrian opposition forces and a decision is expected within weeks, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday said that the UN fact-finding team is "on stand-by and ready to deploy in 24-48 hours" to investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons in attacks in Syria.
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