White House defends Kerry from Putin ‘lying’ charge

{mosads}Putin accused Kerry of denying that al Qaeda was fighting in Syria, The Associated Press reported. Kerry did not say that but did testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday that pro-western “moderates” are making gains.

“Well, we certainly would side with Secretary Kerry in that back-and-forth,” Rhodes said. “We think Secretary Kerry was certainly telling the truth.

“And he reflects longstanding U.S. policy in terms of saying there’s an element of the opposition that we believe is extremist and we’re not going to work with in al-Nusra, but there’s a broader majority that we believe we can empower in terms of strengthening a more moderate force.”

Some U.S. lawmakers appeared more inclined to believe Putin than Kerry.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, questioned Kerry’s assessment during Wednesday’s House Foreign Affairs hearing that only 15 percent to 25 percent of the rebels are “might be in one group or another who are what we would deem to be bad guys.”

“Every time I get briefed on this it gets worse and worse, because the majority now of these rebel forces – and I say majority now – are radical Islamists pouring in from all over the world to come to Syria for the fight,” McCaul said. “The briefings I’ve received – unless I’ve gotten different ones or inaccurate briefings – [that figure is] 50 percent.”

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