John McCain supports 'limited' US strike on Syria, but wants more arms for rebels
As administration makes case for action to Congress, hawkish senator says as well as attacking Syria, US must do more to arm rebels
The White House's aggressive push for congressional approval of an attack on Syria appeared to have won the tentative support of one of President Barack Obama's most hawkish Republican critics, Senator John McCain, who said he supported a "limited" strike if the president did more to arm the Syrian opposition.
After an hour-long meeting at the White House, McCain and fellow Republican senator Lindsey Graham said on Monday that Obama indicated that a covert effort by the United States to train the Syrian rebels was beginning to yield results: the first 50-man cell of fighters, which had been trained by the CIA, was beginning to sneak into Syria.
There appeared to be broad agreement with the president, McCain and Graham said, that any attack on Syria should aim to "degrade" the Syrian government's delivery systems.
But McCain said in an interview that Obama did not say specifically what weapons might be provided to the opposition or discuss in detail what Syrian targets might be attacked.
"There was no concrete agreement, 'OK, we got a deal'," McCain said. "Like a lot of things, the devil is in the details."
Obama has stressed that any US action, expected to include cruise missile attacks, would be "limited" and "narrow".