A US group that supports the Free Syrian Army has received a waiver from the US Treasury Department authorizing it to provide logistical and financial support to the armed Syrian resistance.<\/p>\n
The waiver<\/a>\u00a0was received from the Treasury Department Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) last week, Brian Sayers, of the\u00a0Syrian Support Group<\/a>, told\u00a0Al- Monitor<\/em>\u00a0in an interview Friday [27 Jul 2012].<\/p>\n \u201cThe OFAC decision is huge,\u201d Sayers said. \u201cIt gets us the leeway to support the Free Syrian Army in broad terms.\u201d<\/p>\n The Syrian Support Group hired Sayers, who previously spent six years working in NATO operations in Brussels and Kosovo, four months ago to be the Washington agent for the group.<\/p>\n With backers from the Syrian exile community in the United States and Canada, the Syrian Support Group’s goal \u201chas always been to support the Free Syrian Army in different ways,\u201d Sayers said.<\/p>\n In the constellation of Syrian opposition<\/a> and exile organizations and personalities, the Syrian Support Group \u201csees its niche as to provide direct support for the FSA, and to stand up the Free Syrian Army as the future Syrian Army,\u201d he explained. \u201cThat requires both short term things \u2014 financial operations, logistics support, communications\u2014 but also long-term support: security sector reform, a training doctrine.\u201d<\/p>\n In the near-term, the “OFAC letter allows for providing financial, communications and logistics support to the FSA,\u201d Sayers said. That could include paying for FSA salaries and provisions, as well as \u201ccommunications equipment, satellite imagery, paying for satellite imagery, logistical support for transport, which could mean everything from buying a 4×4 to supporting someone\u2019s travel to Turkey.\u201d<\/p>\n On their more intermediate term wish-list, \u201cour ask is intelligence support, drone support, eyes in the sky, an intelligence platform,\u201d Sayers said. Syria\u2019s rebels \u201cneed both intelligence and weapons,\u201d as they seek to carve out and protect safe areas on the ground in Syria, and try to secure the defection of more members of the Syrian military<\/a>.<\/p>\n Indeed, one Syrian source, speaking anonymously, suggested the Syrian Support Group\u2019s mission is not only about lobbying the US government to provide support to the FSA, but also the reverse: to help turn the FSA into a more organized entity that could receive intelligence and other assistance from Western security agencies.<\/p>\n The FSA has formed a nine-member military council, comprised of the commanders from 10 of Syria\u2019s provinces.\u00a0Although they have previously operated in a more decentralized manner, the Free Syrian Army commanders have recently increased their coordination, including holding conference calls almost daily, Sayers said.<\/p>\n