Qatar to Continue Arming Militant Groups in Syria: Foreign Minister

Responding to a recent interview by the US president-elect Donald Trump who signaled a change of direction in Washington’s policy on Syria, Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani said Doha will continue its path of arming the militancy in the crisis torn Syria.
 
The future president of the US also hinted that he may support Moscow on its war against terrorists in Syria.
 
Stressing on a need for the US support of the militants, Thani said "But if they want to change their minds, are we going to change our position? For us, in Qatar at least, we are not going to change our position. Our position is based on principles, values and on our assessment of the situation there".
 
During a March interview, Trump said that the US’s "approach of fighting Assad and ISIS simultaneously was madness, and idiocy.” "You can't be fighting two people that are fighting each other, and fighting them together. You have to pick one or the other," he added.
 
Though the Qatari foreign minister said they will not provide shoulder-fired missiles to militant groups in Syria for the time being, he claimed that if Syrian forces retake the divided city of Aleppo, the militants will always have the “ability to capture it back.”
 
Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city, remains divided between government forces in the west and foreign-backed terrorists in the east, making it a frontline battleground.
 
Syria has been dealing with a foreign-backed militancy since March 2011.  The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura have put the death toll from the conflict at more than 300,000 and 400,000, respectively. This is while the UN has stopped its official casualty count in the Arab country, citing its inability to verify the figures it receives from various sources.