Obama considers tougher action against Syria

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Barack Obama is considering new ways to

put pressure on Syrian president Bashar al-Assad as he

pledged fresh US assistance to Jordan’s King Abdullah, whose country

is being hit hard by its neighbour’s civil war.

With peace talks in Geneva stalled, the US president and Abdullah met on Friday in California but Obama said he did not expect the

conflict to be resolved any time soon and that “there are going to be

some immediate steps that we have to take to help the humanitarian

assistance there.”

“There will be some intermediate steps that we can take applying

more pressure to the Assad regime and we are going to be continuing to

work with all the parties concerned to try to move forward on a

diplomatic solution,” Obama said.

Obama did not disclose what steps he has under consideration, but US secretary of state John Kerry said earlier while traveling in Asia that a

set of new options are under discussion.

“We have been ramping up our support to the moderate opposition and

Jordan has its own strong role to play in relationship to the moderate

opposition,” said a senior Obama administration official after Obama and

Abdullah held two hours of talks at the Sunnylands retreat.

The official said the two leaders also discussed the rising

extremist threat emanating from Syria and what might be done to counter

it.

With Jordan under pressure from housing more than 600,000 Syrian war

refugees and facing other economic troubles, Obama announced at the

outset of their talks that he intends to provide the strong US ally

with $1 billion in loan guarantees.

In addition, he said Washington will renew a five-year agreement

that locks in annual aid for Jordan. The current package, which expires

at the end of September, has been providing $660 million a year.

Frustrated that conditions in Syria remain horrendous,

and confounded by Assad’s refusal to engage in serious negotiations

about a transition in power, Obama has been signaling a potential shift

toward a more aggressive policy.

Senior administration officials who briefed reporters about Obama’s

talks with Abdullah said all options remain on the table short of

putting American boots on the ground.

Among the long-standing options has been the possibility of arming

Syrian rebels. Such a step would only be applied if it would help nudge

the process toward a political solution, one official said.

“Helping to improve the position of the Syrian opposition, put

pressure on the Syrian regime, is certainly part of the overall

calculation,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.