ROME – The United States will send non-lethal aid directly to Syrian rebels, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday, disappointing opponents of President Bashar al-Assad who are demanding Western weapons.

Earlier this month, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said his country had already sent $50 million in non-lethal assistance to the rebels.

More than 70,000 Syrians have been killed in a devastating conflict that began with peaceful anti-Assad protests nearly two years ago. Some 860,000 have fled abroad and several million are displaced within the country or need humanitarian assistance.

Kerry, speaking in Rome after a meeting of the mainly Western and Arab “Friends of Syria” group said his country would more than double its aid to the Syrian civilian opposition, giving it an extra $60 million to help provide security.

The United States would now “extend food and medical supplies to the opposition, including to the Syrian opposition’s Supreme Military (Council),” Kerry said.

External opposition chief Moaz al-Khatib reneged on a boycott his group declared of international meetings, and was present at the ٌ”Friends of Syria” meeting, delivering an impassioned speech about the conflict. He renewed calls for negotiations with the precondition of Assad’s resignation.

“No nation, no people should live in fear of their so-called leaders,” Kerry said.

Mouaz al-Khatib, leader of the Syrian opposition coalition, called on Assad to “for once in your life behave as a human being.”

“Bashar Assad, you have to make at least one wise decision in your life for the future of your country,” al-Khatib said.

In their final statement, the Friends of Syria pledged more political and material support to the opposition Syrian National Coalition, a fractious group that has struggled to gain traction inside Syria, especially among disparate rebel forces.

Riad Seif, a coalition leader, said on the eve of the Rome talks that it would demand “qualitative military support”, though another coalition official welcomed the shift in the U.S. stance.

“We move forward with a great deal of cautious optimism,” said Yasser Tabbara. “We heard today a different kind of discourse,” he said, adding the opposition need military and political support.

The modest U.S. policy shift may compound the frustration that had prompted the coalition to declare last week it would boycott the Rome talks. It changed its mind under U.S. pressure.

US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) speaks to the Syrian opposition’s National Coalition chief Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib during the family photo of a meeting of the “Friends of the Syrian People (FOSP) Ministerial” group on February 28, 2013 in Rome.

However, a European diplomat held out the prospect of possible Western military support, saying the coalition and its Western and Arab backers would meet in Istanbul next week to discuss military and humanitarian support to the rebels.

Kerry’s offer of medical aid and Meals Ready to Eat (MREs), the U.S. army’s basic ration, fell far short of rebel demands for sophisticated anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons to help tip the balance against Assad’s mostly Russian-supplied forces.

It also stopped short of providing other forms of non-lethal assistance such as bullet-proof vests, armored personnel vehicles and military training to the insurgents.

The final communique called for an immediate halt to “unabated” arms supplies to Damascus by third countries, referring mostly to Assad’s allies Russia and Iran.

It also said Syria must immediately stop indiscriminate bombardment of populated areas, which it described as crimes against humanity. NATO officials say Assad’s military has fired ballistic missiles within Syria, which the government denies.

Human Rights Watch has reported that at least 171 civilians were killed in four Scud missile strikes last week.

Kerry said earlier this week he would not leave the Syrian opposition “dangling in the wind” unsure of getting support.

But the White House continues to resist providing weaponry to the rebel forces, arguing there was no way to guarantee the arms might not fall into the hands of militants who might eventually use them against Western or Israeli targets.

U.S. officials have said that the U.S. Defense and State Departments, under former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, privately recommended that the White House arm the rebels but were overruled.

“It’s a huge debate inside the administration between those that have to deal with Syria on an everyday basis, the State Department and DoD particularly, and the White House, which … until now has vetoed any kind of outreach to the armed groups,” said Andrew Tabler, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think-tank in the U.S. capital.

A source in the Syrian coalition, however, said even the extra $60 million promised by Washington was a pittance compared to what he said was the $40 million a day in humanitarian aid needed for Syrian refugees and internally displaced persons.

Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin told RT that there is a “clear division of labor” for the United States, however. He says that the United States chooses to funnel weapons through other nations because it doesn’t want to be seen as associating with the known terrorist elements of the Syrian rebels, while saying in public that they do not provide weapons. 

He called the practice unfortunate as it “takes attention away from the need to enter political dialogue.” 

– Reuters, AP, Al-Akhbar, TAAN, RT