A key congressional committee had raised concerns that US weapons could end up in the hands of fighters linked to Al-Qaeda like al-Nusra Front, but the House Intelligence Committee has now said that it is willing to accept the risks, officials said on Monday.
"We believe we are in a position that the administration can move forward," House of Representatives Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers told Reuters.
President Barack Obama had said in June that the US would begin openly supplying the rebels after two years of balking at directly sending arms to the opposition.
"We have been working with Congress to overcome some of the concerns that they initially had, and we believe that those concerns have been addressed and that we will now be able to proceed," a source familiar with administration plans told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
US army general Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that more than $1bn would be spent per month if the US became more involved in Syria.
[WS:] Mind boggling. Do these guys ever learn from experience, or just believe that doing the same thing over again will produce different results?
-- Wojtek
"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."