US prisons full of innocents

The Unites States has called for more support for the foreign-backed militants in Syria in order to put an end to what it described as the “imbalance” in the crisis in the Arab country.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said in a speech at a conference on Syria in Qatar on Saturday that the Syria militants need further support “to be able to address the imbalance on the ground.”

“The United States and other countries here — in their various ways, each choosing its own approach — will increase the scope and scale of assistance to the political and military opposition,” he added.

Kerry was addressing foreign ministers of Egypt, France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, which call themselves Friends of Syria, in the Qatari capital of Doha.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said at the same conference that arming the militants is the only way to achieve what he called peace in Syria.

On June 14, US President Barack Obama ordered his administration to provide the foreign-backed militants in Syria with more sophisticated weapons, claiming that the Syrian government had used “chemical weapons” against the militants and thus crossed Washington’s “red line.”

Damascus has rejected the allegations as “lies.”

Israeli President Shimon Peres and British officials have voiced support for Washington’s arming of the militants in Syria.

On Friday, the militants announced that they had received new weapons that could lead to “changes” in war against the Syrian government.

The crisis in Syria began in March 2011 and many people, including large numbers of Syrian soldiers and security forces, have been killed in the foreign-sponsored militancy.

Last month, the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said militants from as many as 29 different countries were fighting against Syria.

The West and its regional allies – especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey – are reportedly supporting the militants.