Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says it is only a matter of time before the rebels have enough territory and organisation to create such areas.

“More and more territory is being taken,” Clinton said this week. “It will eventually result in a safe haven inside Syria, which will then provide a base for further actions by the opposition.”

Officials are already starting to brainstorm how a safe zone might allow Washington to step up its assistance, which has been limited to humanitarian aid and nonlethal equipment such as medical supplies and communications gear.

A senior American official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the US is seeing “increased unity, cohesion and better military performance” among the rebels, including greater effectiveness in coordinating attacks, which the administration sees as proof the rebels are better employing the encrypted radios supplied by the US.

For now, US officials are standing by their assertion that they won’t provide arms to anti-Assad forces or push for a no-fly zone over rebel-controlled areas.

The discussions on Syria come as the US and its international partners look for a possibly game-changing shift in the country’s bloody, 16-month conflict.

The establishment of a safe zone would settle one issue: the lack of an actual place inside Syria for other nations to engage with the opposition on the ground and deliver supplies into the heart of the conflict.

The US would be able to shift Syrian-watching officials they have deployed in places such as Jordan and Turkey into Syria.

And governments such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar that have been providing weapons to the opposition would have a more direct pipeline for military assistance.

But officials cannot point to when the rebels might be able to carve out some autonomous space for themselves within Syria.

The rebels remain heavily outgunned by Syria’s better trained forces. And while they’ve been able to increase the breadth of their attacks across Syria, they’ve been constantly forced to cede back any temporary territorial gains they make.

In the last month, the Obama administration has spoken of the rebels’ growing ability to challenge the Syrian government’s military supremacy. — AP

Clinton went a step further earlier this week, offering a battlefield picture that included Syria’s ragtag alliance of militia beginning to take control of parts of the country.

She said the opposition should be preparing for how it will maintain order when it controls territory.

US administration officials insist that it won’t be the US military that creates safe zones for the Syrian opposition — as proponents of intervention such as Republican Senator John McCain have proposed.

Since the Syrian conflict started, US officials have repeatedly cited the lack of a safe zone in Syrian territory as one of several hindrances to more aggressive American assistance — from establishing a no-fly zone over parts of the country to providing weaponry to the opposition. — AP

Other hurdles have included a lack of regional and international consensus, the opposition’s disorganisation and internal rivalries, the inability to get any UN mandate for action and a lingering sense that American or other foreign intervention might actually mean more lives lost than saved. American officials also say involvement could prompt greater instability in a powder-keg region.

The opposition has been essentially limited to hit-and-run attacks and unable to hold any major Syrian population centres. In addition, officials note that the Assad government is unlikely to cede a city like Aleppo without the kind of fight the rebels are unable to win.

The likely result is that any territory the rebels are able to take, occupy and defend will be far from the Mediterranean coast and not well served by existing infrastructure like good roads, solid bridges, power and water. That would complicate the establishment of foreign consulates or liaison offices, said the officials.

Underscoring the value some see in the safe zones, more than 60 foreign policy experts and former US government officials sent a letter to President Barack Obama this week urging him to use US air power immediately to patrol territory seized by the opposition. The mainly Republican group accused the president of “complicity in oppression” for failing to halt the bloodshed.