Summary Washington on Monday granted diplomatic status to Syrian opposition offices.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Seeking to boost the embattled Syrian opposition, Washington Monday granted its US offices diplomatic status as the rebels political leader arrives to plead for arms to help end the three-year civil war.
A delegation led by Ahmad Jarba, head of the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), began arriving Sunday ahead of high-level talks this week with Secretary of State John Kerry and national security chief Susan Rice on his first official visit to the US since the SNC was set up in 2012.
State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said Washington was announcing new measures "to empower the moderate Syrian opposition and to bolster its efforts to help" those in Syria.
In a largely symbolic move, the US now recognizes the coalition s representative offices in Washington and New York as "foreign missions under the Foreign Missions Act."
Washington, already the largest single donor of some $1.7 billion in humanitarian aid to the Syrian people, is also boosting its non-lethal support and speeding up military deliveries to what it sees as moderate rebels, now fighting both regime forces and the militant groups flooding onto the battlefield.
"This is an important step in the path toward a new Syria, its recognition on the international stage, and its relations with Syrian nationals in the US," Jarba said.
He welcomed the move as "a diplomatic blow against" the legitimacy of President Bashar al-Assad.
Jarba will be accompanied on his eight-day trip by the new chief of staff of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), Brigadier General Abdelilah al-Bashir, his office said last week.
"He will meet US officials to discuss the supply of sophisticated weapons to the FSA to enable it to change the balance on the ground," his office said.
US officials refused to be drawn on the type of non-lethal aid or weapons being supplied by Washington.
But a senior administration official acknowledged there was "an asymmetry militarily" between the opposition rebels and the Assad regime.
