Obama pledges $195m in humanitarian aid to Syrian rebels

US President Barack Obama Damascus – George Al Shami The US President Barack Obama announced on Wednesday that the US will provide an additional $195 million in humanitarian and food aid to Syrian opposition fighters. The news came a day after the US Central Intelligence Agency's second-in-command warned the ongoing conflict in Syria now poses the greatest threat to US national security.
In a statement, issued by the White House on Wednesday while Obama was travelling in California, the US president pledged that the US would grant an additional $195 million in humanitarian and food aid to Syrian rebels, bringing the total humanitarian aid given by the US since the conflict began to $1 billion.
Obama’s statement said that the pledge was timed to coincide with the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr,  adding that many Americans had celebrated Ramadan with Muslims.
Millions in Syria are displaced and the US wants to help, the statement said.
The humanitarian aid follows the approval of a US aid package of weapons to Syrian opposition fighters.
Meanwhile, the CIA deputy director said the war in Syria poses the greatest threat to US security because of the risk of it becoming al-Qaeda's "new haven" if the regime falls, supplanting Pakistan.
The US daily Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that senior intelligence official, Michael Morell, said there were now more foreign fighters from the West pouring into Syria to fight alongside al-Qaeda affiliated groups than there were going to Iraq at the height of the war there.
According to Morell, the Syrian government's weapons "are going to be up for grabs and up for sale" if Assad is ousted. Unless the US has a plan of attack ready for that moment, munitions and warheads currently controlled by Assad could end up in the hands of just about anyone. he said.
“It’s probably the most important issue in the world today,” he said of the war in Syria, adding that the possibility of al-Qaeda replacing the Syrian government if it was overthrown was his greatest concern.
Such an outcome, he warned, would land the Syrian government’s weapons in the hands of terrorists who pose a threat to America.
 Morell also said the violence in Syria was likely to spill across borders into Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.
The CIA official also warned of the risk of not ensuring the security of government-owned weapons, including chemical weapons.
Syria's 28-month conflict has killed more than 100,000 people, according to the UN, and made an estimated 1.8 million people refugees.