In a phone call to Saudi Arabia’s king Abdullah, Obama “emphasized the United States' continued commitment to provide support to the Syrian Opposition Coalition and the Supreme Military Council to strengthen the opposition,” a White House statement said Saturday.
The CIA has been involved in arms smuggling into Syria since the war began, so far sending arms from Saudi Arabia and other nations.
The US weapons have been shipped to Jordan in anticipation of following the same route.
But Obama’s designs on such arms shipments have run afoul of Congress, which has so far refused to sign off on the deal, noting that President Obama doesn’t appear to have much of a plan beyond throwing weapons into the war.
The big concern is that a large chunk of the militants fighting on the ground are al-Qaeda linked extremists, and the vision of US arms in al-Qaeda hands doesn’t sit well with some.
Syria militants have been slamming the US Congress for blocking the aid, saying the concerns about al-Qaeda are unwarranted.
However, the condition seems to be converse to what the militants claimed as one of their senior commanders was recently killed by al-Qaeda affiliated insurgents.
Kamal Hamami, also known as Abu Basir al-Ladkani, was shot dead following a meeting with the al-Qaeda terrorists in the Syrian port city of Latakia.
A spokesman for the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) which is the official face of the insurgents said on Friday that al-Qaeda has threatened to kill all FSA senior commanders.
The conflict in Syria started in March 2011, when pro-reform protests turned into a massive insurgency following the intervention of Western and regional states.
The unrest, which took in terrorist groups from across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, has transpired as one of the bloodiest conflicts in recent history.
As the foreign-backed insurgency in Syria continues without an end in sight, the US government has boosted its political and military support to Takfiri extremists.
Washington has remained indifferent about warnings by Russia and other world powers about the consequences of arming militant groups.
SHI/SHI