US Republican John McCain calls for arming Syria opposition

US Republican Senator John McCain

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/225572.html

US Republican Senator John McCain has called on Washington to consider arming Syrian opposition groups that fight against government forces.

"We should start considering all options, including arming the opposition. The blood-letting has got to stop," said McCain, who is also a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, during a meeting with visiting Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in Washington on Tuesday.

Claiming that diplomacy with regards to Syria has failed, he further explained that, "All the options ought to be considered, maybe a no-movement zone, maybe a sanctuary area. But all of those have got to be discussed."

The comments by the hawkish American senator come after Russia and China vetoed an anti-Syria resolution in the United Nations Security Council.

Russia's ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin said that the “international community” should not meddle in Syria's domestic conflict, and also opposed sanctions against the Syrian regime, saying that embargos could risk heating up the crisis in the Arab state.

Informed sources have recently uncovered a US plot entailing a Turkish incursion and a full-scale Israeli strike to overthrow the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March 2011. Hundreds of people, including Syrian security forces, have been killed in the turmoil.

The West and the Syrian opposition accuse the government of killing protesters. Damascus, however, blames “outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups” for the unrest, insisting that it is being orchestrated from abroad.