The US congress: The Assad regime and its supporters must be held accountable for their crimes against the Syrians
Today, Wednesday, the US Senate said, “The regime and its supporters must be held accountable for their atrocities, war crimes, and crimes against humanity against the Syrian people.”
This came in a statement issued by the Council’s Foreign Relations Committee, coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the Syrian uprising.
The statement stated: “The United States called on the international community to support the Syrians with humanitarian aid, and we stress the importance of the courageous efforts made by the Syrian human rights defenders to document and expose the relentless violence of the Assad regime.”
As Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Menendes said, “For a decade, the world witnessed Assad’s brazen willingness to kill, torture, use gas against his own citizens and starve his people in order to maintain his grip on power.”
Menendez added, “The Syrian people have suffered for a very long time at the hands of a butcher (Bashar al-Assad), and his subjects in Tehran and Moscow continue to nurture their unrelenting terrorist rule.”
He stressed that the United States should take advantage of the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Syrian revolution, “to rethink the diplomatic engagement of the United States to search for concrete measures that serve justice and help provide Syrians with a path towards reconciliation, stability and freedom.”
For his part, Republican member of the Council’s Foreign Relations Committee, Jim Rich, stated, “Over the past decade, Bashar al-Assad and his Russian and Iranian backers have caused tremendous suffering to the Syrian people in a prolonged campaign of torture, starvation, chemical weapons and barrel bombs.”
And he added, “As we approach the tenth anniversary of the Syrian conflict, I am proud to present this resolution with Senator Menendez, which confirms the United States’ support for the Syrian people, a political solution to the conflict, and accountability for the atrocities of the Assad regime.”
The US State Department had previously confirmed that the new administration would renew efforts towards achieving a political settlement to end the “civil war” in Syria.
Source: Agencies
