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ACN
World News

Western help goes to rebels, says Syrian Catholic Patriarch

by Hannah Tooley

Melkite Patriarch Gregorios III told the Christian advocacy charity Aid to the Church in Need that money and weapons given to moderate groups from the West to fight Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is repeatedly ending up with IS.

John Pontifex, from Aid to the Church in Need, told Premier he has heard weapons can end up in the wrong hands: "The moderates who are in receipt of some of this aid historically, have in fact been handing those weapons and money onto the extremist forces.

"In some cases it's a situation of handing the weapons and the money on, in other cases it's very much the case of those things being seized, being actually taken against their will.

"But the same impact is to be found, whatever the circumstances of how IS is obtaining this help.

"The aid that the West has provided, has in fact in some instances gone into the wrong hands.

"This is specifically military aid and has nothing whatsoever to do with humanitarian aid."

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