Congress sounds alarm on weaponization of Syrian aid
The US Congress is warning that Turkey and Russia could join the Syrian government in blocking humanitarian aid for the war-torn country even as lawmakers seek to redirect it from regime-held territory.
The future of humanitarian aid in Syria is uncertain amid concerns that Turkey and Russia could block it in the northeast amid multi-front violence pitting Ankara and its Arab rebel proxies against Syrian Kurdish fighters and the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
A group of Democratic senators began sounding the alarm bells Thursday that the situation in the northeast could exacerbate a “looming disaster.” The warning comes as a bipartisan group of House lawmakers push legislation that could tear US aid dollars for Syria out of the hands of the United Nations in a bid to shift the assistance to rebel-held territory.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and five other Democratic senators sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Thursday asking him to reprogram humanitarian aid in Syria "to cope with the humanitarian needs of an influx of Syrian refugees arriving in Iraq." The letter also requested that the State Department use some of the aid money for “evacuation and relocation” costs for Syrian aid workers at risk of reprisal from the Assad government as Damascus begins to reassert control of the northeast.
“The [Donald] Trump administration opened the door for the nightmare we’re seeing playing out in Syria,” Murphy, the top Democrat on the Senate’s Middle East panel, told Al-Monitor. “The least we can do is help alleviate the suffering, which is why I called on the State Department to help aid workers escape before they can be targeted by Assad.”
