Published on 11 May 2013, by M. Tomazy.
May 11, 2013
"A U.S. official confirmed Ford’s secret visit, which occurred along the Turkey-Syria border. He briefly crossed into Syria to meet with opposition leaders before returning to Turkey. Ford did not go deep into Syria, according to the official.
“It was literally just across the border,” the official said.
A State Department official confirmed that Ford had “spent some time” at a border crossing to discuss the situation in Syria with members of the Free Syrian Army and the Syrian opposition. Ford had gone to the border to participate in the U.S. government’s delivery of Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) that the U.S. is providing to the Syrian Coalition and Supreme Military Council."
On the other hand, Robert Ford released an Arabic interview oriented to what he called 'the Syrian people'.
In my opinion, the secret visit aimed to directly contact the rebels and convince them to engage negotiations with Syrian regime after the recent Lavrov-Kerry meeting, however, military clashes would be intensified during the next days to keep field cards as much as possible in order to strengthen compromising's conditions.
