The Netherlands has stopped funding the Syrian opposition in the civil war against president Assad, foreign minister Stef Blok and trade minister Sigrid Kaag have told MPs in a briefing.

The chance that rebel forces will be able to win the civil war is, the ministers say, now ‘extremely limited’. Dutch support for the rebels has ‘not had the desired effects’, the ministers said. The Netherlands had set aside €70m to fund the opposition.

In addition to funding ‘moderate’ rebels, the Netherland had also put money into their police forces and to the White Helmets programme, the civilian rescue service. Funding for the first two programmes has stopped immediately while the White Helmet support will end in December.

The Netherlands will, however, continue to support Syrian people ‘which will be extremely necessary’ in the coming period, ministers said. Some three million people live in Idlib, which is the last rebel stronghold and where a major offensive by Assad supporters Russia is said to be about to take place.

In their briefing ministers are pessimistic about the current situation in Syria, saying that a military victory by Assad’s forces is ‘imminent’ and that the ‘inherent instability’ means the prospects for lasting peace are gloomy.

However, the Netherlands will continue to strive for a political solution and to support Syria’s neighbouring countries which have also been hit by the conflict, the letter said.

Read the report on the three projects (English) </s> The prosecutor's office's spokesperson told reporters that the office still adhered to its position, but could comment on the fact that the group was recognized as a terrorist one only within the framework of a specific criminal case.

The media reported that apart from Jabhat al-Shamiya, the authorities also assisted other armed groups that were involved in "serious human rights violations" and "cooperation with extremists."

Dutch lawmakers said they were "shocked" by the news. The country's Foreign Ministry said that they treated the information "very seriously," and stressed that this only strengthened them in the decision to stop assistance programs for armed opposition, which were adopted last week.

Earlier in the day, the government of the Netherlands announced the complete cessation of assistance to opposition groups and other organizations in Syria due to the inefficiency of the program. According to them, the program did not bring the expected results, while the troops of Syrian President Bashar Assad, in their opinion, "will soon win."

The Netherlands has reportedly allocated over $80 million to the Syrian opposition groups, including to the Free Syrian Police and White Helmets. The support for the opposition was set to end immediately, while White Helmets will be funded until December. The Kingdom did not provide weapons to groups, aid was allocated to purchase food, cars and equipment.

The Syrian authorities have said that the lifesaving procedures shown in the videos published by the White Helmets were fake and staged. Moscow called the activities of the White Helmets a part of a defamation campaign against the Syrian authorities. Moreover, both Moscow and Damascus said that the White Helmets had ties with terrorists and extremists. The group's head, Raed Saleh, said in August that the White Helmets were not linked to any terror organization.

READ MORE: US-Spawned Terrorism in Syria 'Will Turn Around Like a Boomerang & Destroy Them' </s> The Netherlands has withdrawn support for Syrian rebels ahead of the Idlib offensive

Airstrikes have already begun ahead of an expected offensive by Russia on the province of Idlib, the last rebel stronghold in the country.

The chances the rebel forces will be able to win the civil war now is “extremely limited”, according to a letter read out by Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok and Minister for Foreign Trade Sigrid Kaag.

The Netherlands spent €80million (£71million) on programmes in Syria in order to support “moderate” anti-government groups during the civil war, but these “failed to bring the expected results”.

The support for militants will end immediately, but the White Helmets will be funded until December. </s> The Netherlands has decided to end its support to militants in Syria, since the program did not yield “expected” results. The move comes as journalists found one of the groups had been labeled as terrorists by the country itself.

“The opportunity to quickly change the situation [in Syria] is extremely small,” reads the letter the lower house of the parliament by Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok and Minister for Foreign Trade Sigrid Kaag, announcing the end of support programs for the militants in Syria.

The program to support of “moderate” anti-government groups in Syria was established in close cooperation with “like-minded donors who pursued the same goals as the Netherlands” and cost the country over $80 million (some €80 million) over the years, according to the document. It failed to “bring the expected results,” however, and is to be closed since the Syrian troops “will soon win” the war against militant groups.

Over the years, the Netherlands allocated $29 million (€25 million) to the so-called “non-lethal assistance” (NLA) program, $14.5 million (€12.5 million) were donated to the so-called White Helmets and $17.1 million (€14,8 million) went to the Access to Justice and Community Service (AJACS) program. The AJACS was supposedly designed to support “community police” work in Syria, specifically the so-called Free Syrian Police (FSP) group.

The support for militants is set to end immediately, yet the White Helmets will be funded until December, according to the document. Since the White Helmets now operate only in the Idlib province, which is believed to be the destination of the looming offensive by the Syrian Army and its allies, their future is quite doubtful, the document states.

The move has come amid a damning journalist investigation by the two Dutch newspapers – Nieuwsuur and Trouw. According to their report, 22 armed militant groups were subjects to receive supplies through the NLA program. The “non-lethal” goods supplied by the Dutch government included satellite phones, uniforms, assorted equipment and even the ‘iconic’ Toyota Hilux pick-up trucks, widely used by various militant groups in Syria.

At least one of the groups supplied by the Netherlands, Jabhat al-Shamiya, turned out to be labeled a terrorist group by the country’s own justice department, the journalists have revealed. One Dutch man is currently prosecuted for joining the group back in 2015, with the indictment describing it as a “salafist and jihadist” movement which can qualify only as a “criminal organization with terrorist intent.” The ultimate goal of the group is creation of a “caliphate,” according to the prosecution.

Five other militant groups that the journalists managed to identify have been also involved in human rights violations and cooperated with terrorist groups, the investigative report states. More information about the militants will be released by the two newspapers in the following days.

The extent of the Dutch support to actual terrorists in Syria might be even bigger, since the other recipients openly named in the government letter are quite controversial, to say the least.

The FSP has been operating exclusively in Syria’s province of Idlib, largely controlled by the local Al-Qaeda branch, Al-Nusra Front (now rebranded as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham). The FSP got in limelight last December, when BBC aired the Panorama program titled ‘Jihadis You Pay For.’ The program claimed that the FSP officers had to be approved by Al-Nusra henchmen to get enlisted into the “police force.”

Following the program’s broadcast the UK Foreign Office suspended funding to the FSP through the AJACS program, and ended it completely in August.

The White Helmets have likewise been repeatedly accused of closely cooperating with jihadist groups and effectively serving as their media branch. The group has advertised itself as a volunteer force and Syria’s “civil defense.” The White Helmets have been widely praised in the West and even received an Oscar for a “documentary” movie. The mounting evidence, however, suggests, that they’ve been actively participating in other sorts of “filmmaking,” namely staging chemical attacks that were blamed on the Syrian government.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story! </s> "The opportunity to quickly change the situation [in Syria] is extremely small," the letter by Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok and Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Sigrid Kaag, published on the government’s website, says.

The ministers said that the program "did not bring the expected results," while the troops of Syrian President Bashar Assad, in their opinion, "will soon win."

READ MORE: Journo Says Damascus Has Moles in White Helmets, Info on Future Provocations

The support for the opposition was set to end immediately, while White Helmets will be funded until December.

Both Damascus and Moscow accused militants and the White Helmets non-governmental organization of staging several provocations involving chemical weapons to influence public opinion and justify foreign intervention in Syria. </s> The Dutch government has been supporting an armed group in Syria which has been branded a terrorist organisation by the public prosecution department, current affairs show Nieuwsuur reported on Monday night.

The Netherlands provided uniforms and pick-up trucks to the group known as Jabbat al-Shamiya in 2017, the programme said. Next week, a Dutch jihadi faces court for being a member of the same group.

The equipment was sent to the group as part of a secret programme providing ‘non-lethal’ assistance to 22 rebel groups in Syria from 2015 to the beginning of this year.

According to the public prosecutor Jabbat al-Shamiya is ‘salafist and jihadistic’, ‘strives for the setting up of the caliphate’ and can be qualified as nothing else but a ‘criminal organisation of terrorist intent’.

The fact that the government has supported the organisation in the past could upset the court case, according to legal experts. ‘A court could easily say that it would not convict someone for doing something which had been facilitated by the state,’ Geert-Jan Knops told broadcaster NOS.

Michiel Pestman, who represents the man facing trial in three weeks, told NOS the Nieuwsuur claims undermine the public prosecution’s case.

Stop

The Netherlands has admitted funding Syrian rebel groups but has always maintained they were moderate.

However, this weekend foreign minister Stef Blok and trade minister Sigrid Kaag sent a briefing to MPs explaining that the Netherlands has stopped funding the Syrian opposition in the civil war against president Assad.

The chance that rebel forces will be able to win the civil war is, the ministers say, now ‘extremely limited’. Dutch support for the rebels has ‘not had the desired effects’, the ministers said. The Netherlands had set aside €70m to fund the opposition.

Nieuwsuur says the letter was sent to MPs after it had confronted them with its findings. ‘These findings strengthen our conviction that the decision to stop the funding was the correct one,’ the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Debate

MPs said they were shocked by the Nieuwsuur broadcast and have called on ministers to explain how this could happen.

Much of the information has been declared secret but MPs still want ministers to explain to parliament what has been done. ‘What appears to have happened is exactly what we were afraid of,’ said ChristenUnie leader Gert-Jan Seegers.

In 2015, the CU attempted to have the financial support to Syrian rebel groups stopped but failed to get sufficient support.

Nieuwsuur later published more allegations, claiming that other groups funded by the Netherlands committed human rights violations and war crimes. The broadcaster said it bases its claims on interviews with some 100 ‘rebel leaders’ and people involved with the programme. </s> The Trump State Department has frozen funding to the controversial Syrian aid group known as the White Hemlets, a non-governmental organization (NGO) which provided the sole evidence that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad reportedly used chemical weapons on his own people in an April 7 attack on the city of Douma, according to CBS News.

The evidence provided by the White Helmets of the alleged chemical attack was used by the West to justify several airstrikes on Syrian scientific and military facilities throughout April - the first one conducted on Syria's T4 airbase by Israel 48 hours after the White Helmets' report. Many Douma residents, meanwhile - including Hospital personnel, say the chemical attack never happened.

The White Helmets are a 3,000 member NGO formally known as the Syrian Civil Defense. Established in "late 2012 - early 2013" after a group of 20 Syrians were trained and organized by former British army officer James Le Mesurier. The group then received funding from Le Mesurier's Netherlands-based non-profit group, Mayday Rescue - which is in turn funded by grants from the Dutch, British, Danish and German governments.

The US has provided at least $32 million to the group - around 1/3 of their total funding - through a USAID scheme orchestrated by the Obama State Department and funneled to the White Helmets using a Washington D.C. contractor participating in USAID's Syria regional program, Chemonics.

According to their website, the White Helmets have been directly funded by Mayday Rescue, and a company called Chemonics, since 2014. Yet there’s evidence that both of those organizations started supporting the White Helmets back in early 2013, right around the time the White Helmets claim to have formed as self-organized groups. Mayday Rescue, as we said, is funded by the Dutch, British, Danish and German governments. And Chemonics? They are a Washington, D.C. based contractor that was awarded $128.5 million in January 2013 to support “a peaceful transition to a democratic and stable Syria” as part of USAID’s Syria regional program. At least $32 million has been given directly to the White Helmets as of February 2018. -TruthInMedia

So the US, Dutch, British, Danish and German governments have been funding the White Helmets, a non-governmental organization, through proxies for around five years.

Perhaps fueled by troubling reports that the White Helmets have been accused of staging incidents, the Trump administration has now frozen funding to the group, and has placed support under "active review."

Now they are not getting any U.S funding as the State Department says the support is "under active review." The U.S had accounted for about a third of the group's overall funding. An internal State Department document said that its Near East Bureau needed confirmation from the administration to green light funding for the White Helmets in Syria by April 15th or the department would initiate "shut-down procedures on a rolling basis." -CBS News

"This is a very worrisome development," an official with the White Helmets told CBS. "Ultimately, this will negatively impact the humanitarian workers ability to save lives."

Or not, depending on how one feels about the White Helmets...

Last week, Russian officials brought fifteen people to The Hague from the city of Douma, Syria said to have been present during the alleged April 7 chemical attack, including 11-year-old Hassan Diab who was seen in a widely-distributed White Helmets video receiving "emergency treatment" in a local hospital after the alleged incident.

“We were at the basement and we heard people shouting that we needed to go to a hospital. We went through a tunnel. At the hospital they started pouring cold water on me,” said Diab, who was featured in the video which Russia's ambassador to the Netherlands says was staged.

The boy and his family have spoken to various media outlets, who say there was no attack.

Others present during the filming of Diab's hospital "cleanup" by the White Helmets include hospital administrator Ahmad Kashoi, who runs the emergency ward.

“There were people unknown to us who were filming the emergency care, they were filming the chaos taking place inside, and were filming people being doused with water. The instruments they used to douse them with water were originally used to clean the floors actually,” Ahmad Kashoi, an administrator of the emergency ward, recalled. “That happened for about an hour, we provided help to them and sent them home. No one has died. No one suffered from chemical exposure.” -RT

Also speaking at The Hague was Halil al-Jaish, an emergency worker who treated people at the Douma hospital the day of the attack - who said that while some patients did come in for respiratory problems, they were attributed to heavy dust, present in the air after recent airstrikes, but that nobody showed signs of chemical warfare poisoning.

The White Helmets have previously come under fire for allegations of fabricating evidence and staging bodies. Several of their members have been pictured with, or bear an uncanny resemblance to fighters from the various anti-Assad terrorist groups operating in the region.

Photographic and video evidence gathered over social media and elsewhere depicting White Helmets who appear to be affiliated with terrorist groups can be found here.

And Donald Trump just yanked 1/3 of their funding... </s> Less than two months ago the State Department hosted members of the White Helmets at Foggy Bottom. At the time, the humanitarian group was showered with praise for saving lives in Syria.

“Our meetings in March were very positive. There were even remarks from senior officials about long-term commitments even into 2020. There were no suggestions whatsoever about stopping support,” Raed Saleh, the group’s leader, told CBS News.

Now they are not getting any U.S funding as the State Department says the support is “under active review.” The U.S had accounted for about a third of the group’s overall funding.

“This is a very worrisome development,” said an official from the White Helmets. “Ultimately, this will negatively impact the humanitarian workers ability to save lives.”

The White Helmets, formally known as the Syrian Civil Defense, are a group of 3,000 volunteer rescuers that have saved thousands of lives since the Syrian civil war began in 2011. A makeshift 911, they have run into the collapsing buildings to pull children, men and women out of danger’s way. They say they have saved more than 70,000 lives.

Having not received U.S. funding in recent weeks, White Helmets are questioning what this means for the future. They have received no formal declaration from the U.S. government that the monetary assistance has come to a full halt, but the group’s people on the ground in Syria report that their funds have been cut off.

The group has an “emergency plan” if the funding is halted for one or two months — but they are worried about the long-term freeze.

“If this is a long-term or permanent halt, it would have a serious impact on our ability to provide the same intensity and quality of services that we currently provide to civilians,” said Saleh.

An internal State Department document said that its Near East Bureau needed confirmation from the administration to green light funding for the White Helmets in Syria by April 15th or the department would initiate “shut-down procedures on a rolling basis.” That document also said that the department needed to be notified by April 6th that it could continue programs that focus on removing land mines, restoring essential services and providing food to moderate forces and their families or those programs would also have to be shut down.

However, U.S. government officials are not talking on the record about the date of the actual funding cutoff for each program, which is leading to confusion.

State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert has previously called the White Helmets “selfless men” and asked journalists to watch a documentary about their work. But the State Department did not respond to a CBS News inquiry earlier this week about which programs are still receiving funding, and the date for when certain programs will lose their funding.

President Trump put a freeze on the $200 million in U.S. funding for recovery efforts in Syria in late March. This freeze means that U.S. support for the White Helmets is not the only project in jeopardy. There are also many other stabilization efforts that are backed by the U.S. — including the clearing of explosive devices, bringing back electricity, rebuilding schools, and getting water running — that may end soon.

U.S. officials are working to see if there is a way to adjust existing funding to cover the costs for these projects. They are also trying to get other countries, such as Germany, to cover some of the costs. Earlier this year, at the Brussels for the donor conference for Syria, German Foreign Minister Maas pledged more than $1.1 billion to help people in need in Syria. But as of now, Germany has not officially committed to stepping in beyond this initial commitment.

Observers are also increasingly concerned about Syria’s young people, who are more prone to radicalization if they don’t get the security and support that they need. As a result of the fighting in the country, thousands of schools have been destroyed. The handful of schools that opened their doors again have received simple necessities like chairs, tables and blackboards from the U.S. — but in most schools children are still sitting on the ground, and teachers are extremely hard to come by.

“The amount of U.S. support is very limited but it is better than nothing, so if that will stop, that will be a disaster. After ISIS they started to open the schools and if money stops, that will be done,” said a senior member of the Deir ez-Zor city council. “Without education the people only have ISIS ideas.”

This week, the State Department said it would continue to defend its partners on the ground in Syria when they announced the final operations to liberate ISIS strongholds in the country.

“The fighting will be difficult, but we and our partners will prevail. We will defend United States, Coalition, and partner forces if attacked. The days of ISIS controlling territory and terrorizing the people of Syria are coming to an end,” wrote State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert. She did not write anything about the stabilization projects.

Meanwhile, much of Syria that has been cleared of ISIS control — such as Raqqa, its self-proclaimed capital — is still in ruins and almost impossible to live in.

“Raqqa is like a sick person in an emergency room. So the money or treatment should come faster than the routine way. He is not a normal sick person,” Abdullah al-Arian, a lawyer in Raqqa advising the governing Civil Council.

“The passion and power the U.S. put in to liberate Raqqa does not at all equal the passion to rebuild Raqqa. It is very much different, much less, much more slow,” says al-Arian. “They give us very beautiful words and promises but not much else.” </s> The Syrian Civil Defence - or White Helmets - says its work in rebel-held parts of Syria "has not been disrupted" after reports emerged the US had frozen support for the search-and-rescue group and placed it "under active review".

The head of the humanitarian group's unarmed volunteers, which is made up of former teachers, bakers and ordinary citizens, said it "did not receive any direct funding from the US or any other country".

"The White Helmets receives funding from organisations and associations," Raed Saleh told Al Jazeera.

"Our work has not been disrupted and all the projects we are working on will not be halted. Our volunteers are still operating on the ground."

On Thursday, CBS reported that the state department, which provides about a third of White Helmets' funding, had placed it "under active review".

An internal state department document reportedly said that the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, which has played an important role in US foreign policy in Iraq, Libya and Yemen, required confirmation from the Trump administration by April 15 "to green light funding for the White Helmets" or it would initiate "shut-down procedures".

Last month, the White House instructed the state department to freeze over $200m in funds earmarked for "recovery efforts," a day after President Donald Trump declared that the US would be quitting Syria "very soon".

Saleh told Al Jazeera that while the US had decided to freeze so-called stabilisation projects in Syria, "the Syrian Civil Defence had not been informed that it would no longer receive funds".

According to their website, the White Helmets have been directly funded by Mayday Rescue, a UK-based company, and Chemonics, a US government contractor that works in Rwanda, Honduras and the Maldives and specialises in international development and management.

"The Syrian Civil Defence recently signed contracts with Turkish and Qatari organisations to carry out new projects," Saleh added.

"They have still to be announced."

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Friday, a White Helmets member in Aleppo said a funding squeeze could affect the group's humanitarian work.

"This could become a big problem for us, our operations in rescuing people and [maintaining] our vehicles, equipment," said Ismael al-Abdullah, a rescue worker based in the Aleppo countryside.

"But all our volunteers and centres will continue working ... and saving people across all of Syria."

The White Helmets came to prominence in 2012 for their work rescuing those trapped in rubble after air strikes by Syrian government and Russian warplanes

Despite having saved an estimated 100,000 lives since the outbreak of the Syrian uprising, and earning two Nobel Peace Prize nominations, the group has been the target of several disinformation campaigns by pro-government journalists and Russian media outlets.
The Netherlands halts funding of the Syrian opposition and police forces, saying the chances of them winning the war are "extremely limited". Dutch support for the White Helmets will also end in December 2018.