20 July, 2017
President Donald Trump has ended the covert Central Intelligence Agency program to arm Syrian rebels, which had the aim of bringing down the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The program, initiated by the Obama administration in 2013, originally meant to galvanize pressures to force Assad's departure but many questioned its ability to do so.
USA officials who spoke to WaPo stated that the move is consistent with Trump's desire to seek better relations with Russian Federation, adding that Trump came to a decision on ending the Central Intelligence Agency program about a month ago.
"This is a momentous decision", one current United States official told the Washington Post on the condition of anonymity.
According to the report, Trump chose to close the program after a meeting with CIA Director Mike Pompeo a month ago, ahead of his July 7 meeting with Russian President Vladamir Putin.
The US will not halt its efforts to empower US-backed Syrian rebels who are fighting the Islamic State group in Syria. For many, this reflects the new American administration's lack of interest in removing Assad from power.
One current official told WaPo that Trump's decision essentially means that "Putin won in Syria".
Analysts said the rollback could create a vacuum that may be filled by more radical elements in the country's brutal civil war.
"We are making the moderate resistance more and more vulnerable ..." Some U.S. officials and their allies in the region urged President Barack Obama to respond by providing the rebels with advanced anti-aircraft weapons so they could better defend themselves.
The program to arm moderate Syrian rebels began under the Obama administration in 2013 and was continued under Trump until now.
One big potential risk of shutting down the Central Intelligence Agency program is that the United States may lose its ability to block other countries, such as Turkey and Persian Gulf allies, from funneling more sophisticated weapons - including man-portable air-defense systems, or MANPADS - to anti-Assad rebels, including more radical groups.
The Washington Post reports ending the program, which went into effect in 2013 during the Obama administration, is something Russian Federation has been pushing for.
