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Obama: US plans to arm Syrian rebels

FOX NEWS – The Obama administration is laying out some of its plans for arming Syrian rebels. The President announced the U.S. would provide military assistance, after evidence confirmed the Assad regime used chemical weapons to attack its own citizens.

Arming Syrian rebels will reportedly take place through Turkey, the country sharing a border with north Syria. There are, however, thousands of U.S. troops south of the country in Jordan for an annual exercise.

FOX News confirmed the CIA is running the program which will deliver the weapons and initiate the training of Syrian rebels. This while the administration's Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes says the country needs to be wary of where the weapons are going, which is why it's such a sensitive situation.

"That's important, because it both allows you to get assistance into the hands of those who need it, but it also allows you to have protections to try to keep assistance from reaching those who we don't want to receive materiel, for instance, Al-Nusra, which has generally been the most extremist element of the opposition," Rhodes says.

Republican Senator Orrin Hatch says the administration has known for weeks now that Bashar Assad has used chemical weapons, and the way the administration has handled the situation makes it difficult to be admired by the world.

"The President is fond of drawing red lines and drawing lines in the sand, but people cross them all the time and nothing is done about it. You can't just sit back and do that and be respected in this world. And frankly I don't think the President is that respected," Hatch says.

Ahead of the G8 Summit this week, Russian officials are speaking out saying any attempt to enforce a no-fly zone would violate international law.