May 15, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 81 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Page S2879]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 SYRIA

  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, today I wish to bring attention to the 
Assad regime and its Russian and Iranian backers' latest assault on 
innocent civilians under a rain of airstrikes and barrel bombs, which 
has sparked the worst violence in a year and a half in the Idlib and 
Hama provinces. The regime and its enablers would yet again have us 
believe that they are striking ``terrorists.'' However, facts simply 
bely that worn-out ruse; their airstrikes have hit 18 hospitals in the 
past 2 weeks alone, denying lifesaving facilities to more than 100,000 
people and destroying at least 10 schools, according to NGOs monitoring 
the situation. Relief workers on the ground assess that Assad's forces 
are responsible for scores of civilian deaths over the past 2 weeks, as 
well as displacing 150,000 desperate and terrified people.
  Assad's barrel bombs and starvation campaign, along with violence 
from terrorist organizations, has already sent 5 million Syrians 
fleeing to neighboring Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and Iraq. Despite 
already fragile economic and political systems, these countries have 
shown an extraordinary openness in hosting those fleeing. It is 
absolutely critical that those refugees be allowed to return in a 
manner that is safe, voluntary, and dignified and that they not be 
forced to return to situations in Syria where they face conscription, 
retaliation, detention, torture, or murder at the hands of the Assad 
regime.
  In the face of such wanton cruelty and profound suffering, the United 
States can and must show renewed leadership in Syria, but instead, 
President Trump froze and then terminated stabilization assistance in 
Syria. The Trump administration must restart stabilization funding in 
Syria. Furthermore, Congress can show leadership by passing the Caesar 
Syria Civilian Protection Act, which would impose new sanctions on the 
Assad regime and its Russian and Iranian supporters.

                          ____________________