Trump ends covert aid to Syrian rebels trying to topple Assad
20 July 2017 4:37 PM GMT
President Trump has ended the clandestine American program to provide arms and supplies to Syrian rebel groups, American officials said, a recognition that the effort was failing and that the administration has given up hope of helping to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
The decision came more than a month ago, the officials said, by which time the effort to deliver the arms had slowed to a trickle.
It was never publicly announced, just as the beginnings of the program four years ago were officially a secret, authorized by President Barack Obama through a "finding" that permitted the CIA to conduct a deniable program. News of the troublesome program soon leaked out.
It joins similar failed efforts to deliver arms and money to groups seeking to overthrow governments that Washington found noxious, most famously the Kennedy administration's disastrous effort to do away with the government of Fidel Castro in Cuba. The White House had no comment. But the decision is bound to be welcomed by the Russians. AGENCIES
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