WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), ranking member and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today led nine of their SFRC colleagues in introducing a bipartisan resolution in observance of the 10th anniversary of the Syrian uprising.
In addition to calling on the United States to support humanitarian aid to the Syrian people, the resolution condemns the Assad regime’s atrocities against its own citizens and reaffirms the United States’ commitment to hold the regime and its backers accountable for their war crimes and crimes against humanity. The resolution also lauds Syrian human rights defenders’ brave efforts to document and expose the Assad regime’s unrelenting and indiscriminate violence.
“Over the last decade, Bashar Al-Assad and his Russian and Iranian backers have inflicted enormous suffering on the Syrian people in a prolonged a campaign of torture, starvation, chemical weapons, and barrel bombings,” said Ranking Member Risch. “As we approach the 10th anniversary of the Syrian conflict, I’m proud to introduce this resolution with Senator Menendez reaffirming U.S. support for the Syrian people, a political solution to the conflict, and accountability for the regime’s atrocities through the implementation of the Caesar Act.”
“For a decade, the world has borne witness to Assad’s brazen willingness to kill, torture, gas, and starve his own people in order to maintain his grip on power. The Syrian people have suffered for far too long at the hands of a butcher whose relentless reign of terror continues to be sponsored by his patrons in Tehran and Moscow,” said Chairman Menendez. “As we mark this solemn anniversary and reflect on the resilience of the Syrian people, we must use this moment of diplomatic reengagement for the United States to seek concrete measures that serve justice to Assad and help provide Syrians with a path toward reconciliation, stability and freedom.”
Joining Chairman Menendez and Ranking Member Risch in introducing the resolution were Senate Foreign Relations Committee members Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.).
Find a copy of the resolution here.
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