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Syrian rebels made a plea for heavy weapons from the US and a no-fly zone after the Obama administration announced its intention to ramp up support to opponents of President Bashar al-Assad.
The US move comes amid fears that Mr Assad's regime - bolstered by allies Iran and Hizbollah - is planning an offensive on rebel-held Aleppo, Syria's most populous city.
The US president has been reluctant for the US to become directly involved in the Syrian civil war. However, he has said repeatedly that the use of chemical weapons was a "red line", and a new intelligence assessment has led him to agree "in principle" that the US arm moderate elements of the Syrian opposition, officials said.
Lousy al-Mokdad, a co-ordinator for the Free Syrian Army, the rebel umbrella group, on Friday said that Selim Idriss, head of the FSA's supreme military council, would be meeting officials from the US and other countries in the coming days to discuss assistance.
"We will give a specific list and we will explain the situation on the ground," said Mr al-Mokdad, specifying that the rebels would be asking for anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, and a no-fly zone.
In an interview with al-Arabiya, the satellite television channel, Mr Idriss said only that he hoped to have the weapons and ammunition needed by rebel forces "in the near future".
Mr al-Mokdad appeared cautiously optimistic that the US was shedding its reluctance to become more deeply involved in Syria.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Nato secretary-general, on Friday welcomed Mr Obama's "clear statement".
"The international community has made clear that any use of chemical weapons is completely unacceptable and a clear breach of international law," he said in Brussels.
Angela Merkel, German chancellor, told the BBC that the regime's use of chemical weapons "has to be discussed urgently" by the UN Security Council. She said she hoped the council would reach a "united approach", even though Russia and China have repeatedly blocked British, French and US efforts to secure robust UN condemnation of Mr Assad and approve intervention.
On Friday Russia's foreign ministry expressed "serious concern" at the US announcement.
"There is little doubt that the decision to 'pump' additional weapons to illegal armed formations will increase the level of violent confrontation and violence against innocent civilians" said Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich on Friday.
"Moreover this comes alongside calls to go further, to establish a no-fly zone over Syria in order to provide not just arms (to the opposition), but heavy arms."
Yuri Ushakov, aide to President Vladimir Putin on foreign policy, said however that Russia did not intend to deliver advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Syria in response to the US plans to arm rebels.
In answer to a journalist's question on Friday which outlined that as a possible response, he said "there is no discussion of this at present"l.
He added that the US had shared evidence with Moscow on the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime, but dismissed it. "To put it bluntly, what the Americans showed us was unconvincing . . . It would be difficult even to call them facts."
He recalled Colin Powell's famous 2003 briefing before the UN Security Council in which he defended US intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, which was later found to be deeply flawed, "though I do not want to draw parallels," he insisted.
The Syrian government dismissed US comments on the regime's use of chemical weapons as "full of lies".
A statement by the Syrian foreign ministry in Damascus said the US was resorting to "cheap tactics'' and fabrications to justify Mr Obama's decision to arm the rebels.
The tabular content relating to this article is not available to view. Apologies in advance for the inconvenience caused.>It is not clear how far Washington's support will go however. Reuters quoted diplomats on Friday saying that the US was considering a no-fly zone close to the southern border with Jordan, but official pronouncements have only said that it will provide support of a different "scope and scale" to the non-lethal aid previously delivered.
The rebels have seen a number of setbacks in recent weeks as regime forces, increasingly backed by Iran, Hizbollah and local "popular committees", have consolidated their hold on central Syria and some parts of the Damascus province.
After Hizbollah helped government forces retake the strategic town of Qusair near the Lebanese border last week, pro-regime media began discussing the possibility of a push on the northern city of Aleppo, which has been in stalemate since rebels surged in to parts of the city last summer.
On Friday, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition monitoring group, said that the city was seeing the worst clashes in months, as government troops attacked the Sakhour district.
"They (government forces) are now trying to retake part of Aleppo with help of Iran, Hizbollah and even some from Iraq," said one rebel commander in northern Syria
The rebels have also been on the attack in Aleppo and its environs in recent days, however. The Observatory reported heavy clashes around a government-held air base north of Aleppo city on Friday.
Analysts say that government forces would currently struggle to retake Aleppo, which is much larger than Qusair, and is linked by rebel-controlled routes to the Turkish border.
"In Aleppo, it's different, no one can besiege us," said the commander. "We have strategic depth in rural Aleppo."
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Syrian rebels made a plea for heavy weapons from the US and a no-fly zone after the Obama administration announced its intention to ramp up support to opponents of President Bashar al-Assad.The US move comes amid fears that Mr Assad's regime - bolstered by allies Iran and Hizbollah - is planning an offensive on rebel-held Aleppo, Syria's most populous city.
The US president has been reluctant for the US to become directly involved in the Syrian civil war. However, he has said repeatedly that the use of chemical weapons was a "red line", and a new intelligence assessment has led him to agree "in principle" that the US arm moderate elements of the Syrian opposition, officials said.
Lousy al-Mokdad, a co-ordinator for the Free Syrian Army, the rebel umbrella group, on Friday said that Selim Idriss, head of the FSA's supreme military council, would be meeting officials from the US and other countries in the coming days to discuss assistance.
"We will give a specific list and we will explain the situation on the ground," said Mr al-Mokdad, specifying that the rebels would be asking for anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, and a no-fly zone.
In an interview with al-Arabiya, the satellite television channel, Mr Idriss said only that he hoped to have the weapons and ammunition needed by rebel forces "in the near future".
Mr al-Mokdad appeared cautiously optimistic that the US was shedding its reluctance to become more deeply involved in Syria.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Nato secretary-general, on Friday welcomed Mr Obama's "clear statement".
"The international community has made clear that any use of chemical weapons is completely unacceptable and a clear breach of international law," he said in Brussels.
Angela Merkel, German chancellor, told the BBC that the regime's use of chemical weapons "has to be discussed urgently" by the UN Security Council. She said she hoped the council would reach a "united approach", even though Russia and China have repeatedly blocked British, French and US efforts to secure robust UN condemnation of Mr Assad and approve intervention.
On Friday Russia's foreign ministry expressed "serious concern" at the US announcement.
"There is little doubt that the decision to 'pump' additional weapons to illegal armed formations will increase the level of violent confrontation and violence against innocent civilians" said Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich on Friday.
"Moreover this comes alongside calls to go further, to establish a no-fly zone over Syria in order to provide not just arms (to the opposition), but heavy arms."
Yuri Ushakov, aide to President Vladimir Putin on foreign policy, said however that Russia did not intend to deliver advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Syria in response to the US plans to arm rebels.
In answer to a journalist's question on Friday which outlined that as a possible response, he said "there is no discussion of this at present"l.
He added that the US had shared evidence with Moscow on the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime, but dismissed it. "To put it bluntly, what the Americans showed us was unconvincing . . . It would be difficult even to call them facts."
He recalled Colin Powell's famous 2003 briefing before the UN Security Council in which he defended US intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, which was later found to be deeply flawed, "though I do not want to draw parallels," he insisted.
The Syrian government dismissed US comments on the regime's use of chemical weapons as "full of lies".
A statement by the Syrian foreign ministry in Damascus said the US was resorting to "cheap tactics'' and fabrications to justify Mr Obama's decision to arm the rebels.
The tabular content relating to this article is not available to view. Apologies in advance for the inconvenience caused.>It is not clear how far Washington's support will go however. Reuters quoted diplomats on Friday saying that the US was considering a no-fly zone close to the southern border with Jordan, but official pronouncements have only said that it will provide support of a different "scope and scale" to the non-lethal aid previously delivered.
The rebels have seen a number of setbacks in recent weeks as regime forces, increasingly backed by Iran, Hizbollah and local "popular committees", have consolidated their hold on central Syria and some parts of the Damascus province.
After Hizbollah helped government forces retake the strategic town of Qusair near the Lebanese border last week, pro-regime media began discussing the possibility of a push on the northern city of Aleppo, which has been in stalemate since rebels surged in to parts of the city last summer.
On Friday, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition monitoring group, said that the city was seeing the worst clashes in months, as government troops attacked the Sakhour district.
"They (government forces) are now trying to retake part of Aleppo with help of Iran, Hizbollah and even some from Iraq," said one rebel commander in northern Syria
The rebels have also been on the attack in Aleppo and its environs in recent days, however. The Observatory reported heavy clashes around a government-held air base north of Aleppo city on Friday.
Analysts say that government forces would currently struggle to retake Aleppo, which is much larger than Qusair, and is linked by rebel-controlled routes to the Turkish border.
"In Aleppo, it's different, no one can besiege us," said the commander. "We have strategic depth in rural Aleppo."
moneycontrol.com