A visiting US congressional delegation today applauded the decision of the Egyptian authorities to summon Egypt's ambassador from Damascus for consultations, and said that this should send a clear message to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad about the need to stop the killing of his people.
The delegation, which is headed by Republican congressman John McCain, also applauded the efforts of the Arab League to coordinate a political and humanitarian exit out of the almost year-long crisis in Syria.
Speaking to reporters at a Cairo hotel, following talks with top Egyptian officials and parliamentarians (including a meeting with Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of the ruling Supreme Council for Armed Forces), McCain said that support should be immediately handed to the Syrian opposition, which is being ruthlessly suppressed by the Al-Assad regime.
McCain, however, noted that he was "not calling for direct supplies of weapons to the opposition."
Some voices in the US Congress had suggested earlier the need to look into arming the opposition in face of the brutalities of the Syrian regime.
Meanwhile, McCain insisted that it was "the duty and not the privilege of free nations to come to the rescue of the Syrian people who are being massacred" by the Assad regime.
McCain added that "the president of the US should be standing up and speaking up on behalf of the people who are being killed in Syria."
The visiting delegation said that the fear of a suspected imprint of Al-Qaida on some elements of the operation of the Syrian opposition should not be taken as a reason to shy away from reaching out to Syrians' pursuit of democracy, even if it is, as McCain suggested, "a somewhat significant risk."
Member of the delegation Lindsey Graham said that the Syrian people are unlikely to turn to Al-Qaida once they taste freedom from the ruling Assad regime.
"I just don’t believe that the Syrian people would fly Al-Qaida flag," Graham said.
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