Syria: Russia Claims Western Special Forces Fighting with Rebels

Russia accuses the West of arming a military task force in Syria to strengthen the opposition and dramatizing Syria's internal affairs.

"According to the latest reports that are now being verified, a foreign special task force has been deployed in Syria," Pushkov Alexei Puskhov, the chairman of Russia's lower house of parliament, the Duma reporters on Friday. "If these reports are proved to be true, the scenario will be absolutely the same as it was in Libya."

According to Pushkov, "they [the alleged foreign task force on the ground in Syria] are supporting the opposition and supplying them with arms; they propose an unbalanced resolution that places rigid conditions on Syria's ruling regime, while giving in to the demands of the opposition."

Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning the violence, causing anger and disappointment in the international community and inside Syira. Thousands of people demonstrated across the country against Moscow.

Russia, a Soviet-era ally of the Syrian regime, has said despite the U.N. veto, it supports an end to the violence but feels the situation is for Syrians to resolve.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration is working behind the scene to help organise a "friends of Syria meeting" as part of a desperate attempt to work outside the UN to solve the crisis in Syria.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reportedly admitted that "faced with a neutered Security Council, we have to redouble our efforts outside the United Nations".

The State Department said Thursday that its top Mideast envoy, Jeffrey Feltman, has been dispatched to Morocco, France and Bahrain to help put the "friends" meeting together and regulate the group's membership and mandate.

France and Turkey have proposed to host the meeting. Morocco is also a candidate. Some lawmakers have pushed for a US-supported military aid for the rebels in Syria. The Times newspaper quoted one source claiming US officials were looking at plans to give military aid to the opposition.

US Senator John McCain, who also backed an armed opposition in Libya against embattled dictator Muammar Gaddafi, is a strong supporter of the military solution.

"We should start considering options, arming the opposition," McCain says.