President
Trump has decided to formally end the CIA program to arm Syrian
rebel factions, a program that has been active for years, and highly criticized
for having seen a lot of the US provided arms ending up in the hands of
al-Qaeda and other Islamists.
This
arms smuggling scheme had long-standing problems, and was frozen earlier this
year because the rebel factions the US was supporting have been fighting one another
increasingly, and have been less and less interested in fighting
either ISIS or the Syrian government.
This
move won’t end the US arming of the Kurdish YPG, as this scheme is wholly
independent from the CIA program, and is being run directly by the Pentagon.
The factions getting arms from the CIA are mostly based in Idlib, with some
smaller groups along the Jordan border.
President
Trump has been seen as sour on the CIA program since
before he took office, complaining that the US didn’t have good
enough intelligence on who the rebels are, and should focus on fighting ISIS.
Still, it took quite a few months to finalize this decision.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iulpkTVIrA&t=145s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iulpkTVIrA&t=145s
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