Syria suggests U.S. should have spent rebel training funds on aid
By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Syria suggested on Tuesday that the United States could have spent $500 million tackling Syria's refugee and humanitarian crisis instead of on a largely failed program to train and equip moderate rebels fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad. Syrian United Nations Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari also accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of supporting "terrorism with great generosity" rather than a $2.9 billion U.N. humanitarian response plan that is less than 40 percent funded for 2015. "The United States spent half a billion dollars - this is enough to fill the humanitarian deficit - half a billion dollars ... within the framework of the program to train and to equip the moderate opposition," Ja'afari told a U.N. Security Council briefing on the humanitarian situation in Syria. Under a $580 million program, Washington trained 180 rebels outside Syria then sent back to the battlefield. The Pentagon has said it would "pause" the program and instead give equipment and provide air support to vetted rebel group leaders. In response to Ja'afari's remarks, a U.S. official said Washington is the largest single donor tackling the humanitarian crisis in Syria. "The United States has contributed $4.5 billion in humanitarian aid relief ... to assist those affected by the crisis in Syria, which persists in large part due to the Syrian government's horrific actions against its own people," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The U.N. missions of Saudi Arabia and Qatar did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Ja'afari's accusations. Saudi aid official Abdullah Al-Rabeeah told an International Peace Institute event in New York on Tuesday that Riyadh actively supported Syria with humanitarian relief. A Syrian government crackdown on a pro-democracy movement in early 2011 led to an armed uprising. Radical Islamic State militants have since seized on the chaos to declare a caliphate in territory they have seized in Syria and neighboring Iraq. The United Nations says at least 250,000 people have been killed. U.N. aid chief Stephen O'Brien told the Security Council on Tuesday that 4.2 million people had fled Syria, some 13.5 million people needed protection and help inside Syria, of which more than six million are children. "The failure of the parties to uphold the basic tenets of international humanitarian and human rights law has propelled the Syrian people to levels of tragedy and despair than could barely have been imagined five years ago," O'Brien said. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
