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U.S. officials are calling it "humanitarian support," but a new push to directly intervene in the fighting in Syria sounds a lot like the opening of a proxy war. On Sunday, the U.S. and dozens of other countries in the Friends of Syria group signed off on a gift basket of monetary, strategic and technological support for the Syrian rebels. While the package does not include lethal weapons, if you look at what is provided and the direction the talks are moving in, the Friends of Syria coalition has effectively thrown down the gauntlet against Bashar al-Assad's regime and by extension, its primary backers Iran and Russia.
For its part, the U.S. just promised night-vision goggles, satellite communications equipment to help the rebels "organize, evade attacks by the regime" and communicate with people outside the country and an additional $12 million in humanitarian support (for a grand total of $25 million), reports The New York Times. It might just be us but we doubt that the those goggles will be used for taking in the scenery or the communication system used for catching up with distant relatives. This is equipment to fuel the resistance and if many of the Sunni-led states in the coalition have their way, it will be just the beginning.