Four U.S. senators Thursday introduced a bill that would prevent the Obama administration from sending military aid to Syrian rebels.
The senators said the administration had not revealed how and what sort of military support they were planning to send and questioned Washington's capability in ensuring that the weapons do not fall into the wrong hands.
The bill was sponsored by - Democrats Tom Udall of New Mexico and Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Republicans Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah.
"The president's unilateral decision to arm Syrian rebels is incredibly disturbing, considering what little we know about whom we are arming," said Paul in a statement.
The lawmakers expressed fears that if the weapons fell into the wrong hands, they might be used against the United States.
"This is about looking at the possibility of a failed state in which terrorist actors already present within Syria in this fight can launch attacks against our allies, and potentially against the United States," said Democrat Robert Menendez of New Jersey, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to the Reuters.
President Obama earlier agreed to arm Syrian rebels saying that the U.S. intelligence had concluded that the Syrian forces under President Bashar al-Assad's regime were using chemical weapons against the insurgents who were fighting to overthrow the regime.
"Following a deliberative review, our intelligence community assesses that the Assad regime has used chemical weapons, including the nerve agent sarin, on a small scale against the opposition multiple times in the last year," said Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser to President Obama.
"Our intelligence community has high confidence in that assessment given multiple, independent streams of information," said Rhodes. "The intelligence community estimates that 100 to 150 people have died from detected chemical weapons attacks in Syria to date; however, casualty data is likely incomplete."
U.N. General-Secretary Ban Ki-moon, however, expressed his opposition over Washington's decision to arm the Syrian rebels.
"The validity of any information on the alleged use of chemical weapons cannot be ensured without convincing evidence of the chain-of-custody," said Ban Ki-moon, according to National Public Radio.
Calling for ground-level investigation, the global body head urged the Syrian government to grant access to a technical mission led by Dr. Ake Sellstrom.
"That is why I continue to emphasize the need for an investigation on the ground in Syria that can collect its own samples and establish the facts. The use of chemical weapons by any party would be a crime against humanity," said Ban Ki-Moon. "Given the seriousness of the allegations and the potentially grave consequences, I again urge the Syrian Government to grant Dr. Sellstrom's team the access we have long sought."
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