Push from Syria’s ‘southern front’ aims to overwhelm Assad regime

After months of battlefield stalemate, a flurry of reports suggest a new clandestine effort is under way to open a "southern front" against the Assad regime.

Central to the plan is a renewed push to provide Syria's badly divided and often ineffectual moderate, secular rebel groups with additional funds, upgraded weapons and intelligence support.

The initiative, as reported in the region, is set against a backdrop of secret talks in the United States last month between Susan Rice, Barack Obama's national security adviser, and Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the Saudi interior minister in charge of covert action programmes in Syria.

According to the usually well-informed columnist David Ignatius of The Washington Post, spy chiefs from Jordan, Turkey, Qatar and other regional countries also attended the discussions, focused on making a "stronger effort" to help the rebels.

This meeting has been linked in turn to last month's launch by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) of what they termed a spring offensive in the south of the nation. The offensive began days after they received new US weapons funding that may eventually total more than US$30 million, rebel commanders said.

After holding back for months owing to fears that new arms might fall into the hands of al-Qaeda affiliates, officials said the US Congress had given approval in January for more cash for light weapons intended for the secular opposition in the south.

The new US funding supposedly augments a fresh push by Arabian Gulf states to finance rebel operations in the southern region of Syria, which are ultimately aimed at Damascus.