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On Friday, The White House warned that training and providing arms to moderate rebel troops in Syria to fight the Islamic State (IS) will take months, only a day after the US Congress approved the plan in a rare show of bipartisanship.
“We will move out as rapidly as can be done, in partnership with the countries that will host the training facilities”, US President Barack Obama’s National Security Adviser Susan Rice said.
“This will be a process that takes months”, she said, adding that it won’t “happen overnight”.
“This is a serious training program, and we are serious about vetting those that we will be training and equipping. It is not something that one should expect will yield rapid and immediate fruit”, she said. Rice, however, did not give a specific timeline on when the training will happen.
The plan was adopted by the US Congress on Thursday and envisions training and equipping moderate rebel forces in Syria to counter the IS ground offensive. However, the plan does not give Obama free reign – his administration must submit a report every 90 days on the number of fighters trained, the groups which have chosen to take part and exactly how the weapons are being supplied and used.
Meanwhile, the US has discussed the threat IS militants pose with envoys from Iran on the sidelines of their nuclear talks, The US State Department said on Friday.
“Discussion on this threat did arise on the margins of the meeting as they have from time to time”, Jeff Rathke, spokesman for the State Department, said.
However, he also stressed that the meeting were “focused primarily on nuclear issues.
On Monday, US Secretary of State had ruled on military co-operation with Iran, generally considered a foe to the US, but Washington has remained open to discussion with Tehran regarding the threat the IS poses and measures to deal with them efficiently.