While some U.S. officials, particularly inside the State Department, are pushing for more direct assistance to the Syrian opposition, for now, administration policy remains focused on nonlethal aid and planning for the day after the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.In a hastily arranged trip to Turkey this weekend, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to meet with Syrian opposition figures beyond the exile leaders who have been the public political face of the insurgency, a senior administration official said.

“Now that we’ve turned away from the United Nations, and there’s a lot going on” inside Syria, Clinton wants to talk to “activists on the ground,” said the official.

In remarks Tuesday during a visit to South Africa, Clinton did not address long-standing demands by rebel fighters for U.S. military help. Instead, she said that “the intensity of the fighting in Aleppo, the defections, really point out how imperative it is that we come together and work toward a good transition plan.”