Assad forces gaining upper hand in Syria says McCain
Argentina Star Monday 3rd June, 2013
• McCain reiterates demand for military support for rebels
• Says Assad now has the upper hand
• Says 'it's tragic, while we sit by and watch'
NEW YORK - US Senator John McCain, who made a surprising trip to Syria by secretly crossing the Syria-Turkey border, has said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has gained the upper hand in fight against rebels.
In offering his bleakest assessment of the hostilities there, McCain said Sunday that opposition fighters were being "massacred" as Assad was beginning to tighten his grip on power.
"Remember all this talk we've heard for the last year or two it's inevitable that Assad will fall?" McCain asked during an appearance on CBS's "Face the Nation."
"Well, I think we can't make that statement today," he said.
McCain last week surreptitiously visited Syria to meet rebel commanders who asked for US military intervention in ousting Assad from the power.
The Republican Senator urged the administration of President Barack Obama to intervene immediately in the Syrian crisis, claiming that the longer the US waited, the more the situation was unraveling.
McCain last week said the Syrian rebels were in dire need of "ammunition and heavy weapons" as the government troops are gaining ground in the crisis-hit country.
"There's no doubt that they (the militants) need some kind of capability to reverse the battlefield situation, which right now is in favor of Assad," he said.
McCain, who is a member of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committee, has been an outspoken supporter of arming the militants in Syria, a stance the Obama administration has shied away from adopting officially though there have been reports of the US role in coordinating the shipment of arms to the militants through Turkey and Jordan.
The Syria crisis began in March 2011, and as many as 80,000 people, including large numbers of soldiers and security personnel, have been killed in the violence.
McCain, long one of the most outspoken voices in Washington for a forceful intervention in the Syrian war, visited there early last week to meet with the rebel forces fighting the Assad regime.
He was the first US senator to meet with the rebels there since fighting began two years ago. And on Sunday, he described what he said was a fast-deteriorating scene.
"We are seeing, unfortunately, a battlefield situation where Bashar Assad now has the upper hand, and it's tragic, while we sit by and watch," he said.
As he has done repeatedly, McCain called for the imposition of a no-fly zone over Syria and the creation of safe zones for rebels and refugees.
But the Obama administration remains wary of intervening directly into a complicated Middle Eastern conflict alongside uncertain allies and against increasingly well-armed forces. So far, the United States has given the rebels only nonlethal material support. Assad has benefited, meanwhile, from growing outside military support and weapons shipments.
McCain cast skepticism on the notion that anything short of military support could turn the table. Secretary of State John Kerry has been trying to arrange peace talks between the Assad government and opposition leaders in Geneva, but no date has been set.
"Hezbollah has now invaded, the Iranians are there, Russia is pouring weapons in, and anybody that believes that Bashar Assad is going to go to a conference in Geneva when he's prevailing on the battlefield it's just ludicrous," McCain said.
A senior Democratic senator, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, agreed on the CBS program that Assad's forces had "regrouped," adding, "He's been able to reconstitute his forces.
But like President Obama, Reed insisted that "this calls for ultimately a political solution." While the United States should not take any options off the table, the country should focus on achieving a political arrangement in Geneva, said Reed, who like McCain is a member of the Armed Services Committee.
McCain warned that the fighting could spread.
"It's a slaughter, and the refugee camps are full, the Jordanians cannot last under the present situation, Lebanon is more and more tilting into chaos," he said. "This has every likelihood of turning into a regional conflict."
Hezbollah's involvement in the battle over strategic Qusair has also raised tensions with Syrian rebels and with Sunnis in Lebanon who support the rebels.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has linked his militia's fate to the survival of Assad's regime, but pledged in a televised speech last month that he would keep the battle out of Lebanon.
Syrian activists reported new fighting in Qusair, about 6 miles from the Lebanese border. Local activist Hadi Abdullah reported heavy shelling and air strikes by Assad's regime on the town Sunday.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported at least three killed in Qusair Sunday.
An Assad victory in Qusair would solidify his control over the central province of Homs, linking the capital Damascus with the Alawite strongholds on the Mediterranean coast. For the rebels, holding the town means protecting their supply line to Lebanon..
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