Jeddah: The US top diplomat headed for talks with the Syrian opposition and its key backer Saudi Arabia Friday after the White House asked lawmakers for $500 million to train and equip rebels.
The move would mark a significant escalation of US involvement in the three-year-old civil war in Syria, which is now increasingly interlinked with a jihadist-led insurgency in neighbouring Iraq.
Saudi King Abdullah, who will meet Secretary of State John Kerry in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, has long called for greater US military support for the Syria rebels, whom the Saudis have long backed.
He has also been an outspoken critic of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki whose government has seen insurgents sweep up a huge swathe of territory north of Baghdad, including second city Mosul, since June 9.
Riyadh has played down Western concerns that the insurgents are led by jihadists.
Maliki has hit back, accusing both Saudi Arabia and its neighbour Qatar of supporting terrorism.
The White House made clear in its request to Congress that the military aid it was proposing for Syria would be for vetted rebels only, to address concerns that US weapons supplied to the battlefield might fall into the hands of jihadists on both sides of the Syria-Iraq border.
The ultra-hardline Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant remains the dominant player in war against Syrian government.
About $287 million have been cleared for the rebels since March 2011, and the CIA has participated in a secret military training programme in neighbouring Jordan for the moderate opposition.
Meanwhile US reluctance to come to the aid of Baghdad following ISIS advance have reinforced fears in the region that US was waiting to see end of Maliki government.
Those fears were highlighted Thursday when Maliki “welcomed” Syria government air strikes against ISIS fighters who control both sides of the Al-Qaim crossing on their common border.
Washington responded that military action by Assad’s government would not be “in any way helpful to Iraq’s security.”
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