US military planners, responding to a request by the White House to develop options for Syria, recommended the limited no-fly zone along the Syrian border to protect rebels and refugees inside Jordan.
The plan would create what one official called a 'no fighting zone' that would stretch up to 25 miles into Syrian territory along the Jordanian border, preventing Mr. Assad's forces from launching attacks against the rebels and refugees and protecting US personnel involved in distributing weapons and providing training.
Under this plan, the US. and its allies would enforce the zone using aircraft flown from Jordanian bases and flying inside the kingdom, according to US officials.
We will continue to increase these efforts going forward. I can’t go through an inventory of the type of assistance we are going to provide.
It’s going to be substantively different from what we were providing certainly before our initial (chemical weapons) assessment in April.
It’s going to be an increase on both the political and the military side. We have a range of contingency plans drawn up.
We appreciate the President’s finding that the Assad regime has used chemical weapons on several occasions. We also agree with the President that this fact must affect US policy toward Syria.
The President’s red line has been crossed. US credibility is on the line. Now is not the time to merely take the next incremental step. Now is the time for more decisive actions.
The conflict in Syria has taken a dramatic turn for the worse. The United Nations reported today that the death toll in Syria is approaching 93,000.
Hezbollah is all in. Iran is all in. Iraqi militant groups are flowing into Syria to fight for Assad. Russia continues to provide military and diplomatic support.
Assad is dramatically increasing his use of airpower against civilians and opposition forces in Syria. A report today stated that Assad’s forces conducted at least 5,000 air-to-ground attacks last month alone.
A decision to provide lethal assistance, especially ammunition and heavy weapons, to opposition forces in Syria is long overdue, and we hope the President will take this urgently needed step.
But providing arms alone is not sufficient. That alone is not enough to change the military balance of power on the ground against Assad.
The President must rally an international coalition to take military actions to degrade Assad’s ability to use airpower and ballistic missiles and to move and resupply his forces around the battlefield by air.
This can be done, as we have said many times, using stand-off weapons such as cruise missiles.
We cannot afford to delay any longer. Assad is on the offensive with every weapon in his arsenal and with the complete support of his foreign allies. We must take more decisive actions now to turn the tide of the conflict in Syria.
He should publicly announce that it has plans for military action against Iranian nuclear and missile facilities, conduct military exercises in the region in a systematic and sustained way consistent with those plans, deploy US military forces to protect critical assets of our allies in the region and prepare to close down overseas Hezbollah cells and expose Iranian intelligence agents.
It is no longer possible to shrug off the ongoing diplomatic impasse with Tehran. The United States and the international community must approach this crisis with the clarity, determination and urgency it demands and deserves.
