by Staff Reporter
June 17, 2913 (TSR) – Saudi Arabia has begun supplying anti-aircraft missiles to militant groups in Syria since two months ago, a Saudi source said on Monday to Reuters.
The shoulder-fired weapons were obtained mostly from suppliers in France and Belgium, the source told the news agency. France had paid for the transport of the weapons to the region.
The supplies were intended for General Salim Idriss, the head of the so-called Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), who was still the kingdom’s main “point man” in the opposition, the source said.
Idriss met with U.S. Republican John McCain, who sits on the Senate Committee for Foreign Relations last May. McCain entered Syria illegally on May 27 with the help of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, an NGO linked to Israel.
It was Idriss that requested McCain for the no-fly zone and more weapons, and McCain, who is the leading American voice in arming terrorists happily obliged.
The Saudi source said without elaborating that the kingdom had begun taking a more active role in the Syrian conflict in recent weeks due to the intensification of the conflict.
A foreign ministry spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
King Abdullah returned to Saudi Arabia on Friday after cutting short a holiday in Morocco to deal with what state media described as “repercussions of the events that the region is currently witnessing”.
Diplomatic sources in the kingdom say Riyadh has grown increasingly concerned after the victory of Syria army in strategic city of Qusair.
Speaking to Reuters on Friday, Idriss urged Western allies to supply anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles and to create a no-fly zone.
Idriss said his militant group urgently needed heavier weapons in the northern city of Aleppo, where Syria army is preparing a massive operation.
