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Monday 3 June 2013 - 10:27

US senator blasts McCain's Syria visit, pledge of aid to al-Qaeda militants

Story Code : 270270
US Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky
US Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky
“I’m very worried about getting involved in a new [US] war in Syria,” said the senator from Kentucky in remarks at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, right-wing US daily The Washington Times reported Sunday.
 
McCain, a veteran Republican senator from Arizona and his political party’s defeated presidential nominee in 2008 US elections, has come under “harsh scrutiny” since posing for photos with al-Qaeda-linked Syrian insurgent militants, who have reportedly kidnapped 11 Shia civilians from Lebanon, the daily adds.
 
“They say there are some pro-Western people (militants) and we’re going to vet them. Well, apparently we’ve got a senator (McCain) over there who got his picture taken with some kidnappers, so I don’t know how good a job we’re going to do vetting those who are going to get the [American] arms,” Paul further added, to the laughter and applause of his audience.
 
Senator Paul also insisted that many anti-Damascus militants supported by the US and its allies in Europe and the Middle East are affiliated with al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra terrorist group, cited in many reports for involvement in numerous atrocities against Syrian civilians and pro-government forces.
 
    “If you want to get involved in a war in Syria,” he said of a potential US plan to interfere in the country in support of the insurgent gangs, “You will be allied with al-Qaeda,” a shadowy terrorist group that the American government claims to be at with at a global level.
 
 
McCain slipped into Syria on May 27 to meet with foreign-backed insurgent commanders, who asked for US bombing of Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, “targeted strikes,” and the establishment of a no-fly zone over Syria.
 
McCain’s brief and largely publicity intrusion into Syria came near Syria’s Bab Salameh border crossing with Turkey, where he reportedly held talks with leaders of foreign-sponsored militant group, so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA), according to his spokesman Brian Rogers.
 
During the pro-Israeli senator’s meeting with Gen. Salim Idriss, leader of FSA’s “Supreme Military Council,” and other militant commanders, Idriss asked that the US supply the insurgent gangs with “heavy weapons, set up a no-fly zone in Syria and conduct airstrikes on Hezbollah,” the Islamic resistance movement in Lebanon, The Los Angeles Times reports on Tuesday.
 
Idriss further described McCain’s visit as “very useful,” and called on “the US government to take the decision to support” the militants “with weapons and ammunition, antitank missiles and antiaircraft weapon.”
 
    “Of course we want a no-fly zone and we ask for strategic strikes against Hezbollah both inside Lebanon and inside Syria,” Idriss was also cited as saying.
 
 
FSA’s political and media coordinator, Louay al-Mokdad further said of McCain’s meeting with anti-Damascus militant leaders: “We asked about targeted strikes… He (McCain) was very open and promised to push for us with the US administration.”
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