(CNN) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a vocal critic of President Donald Trump's decision to pull US troops from Syria, said Thursday he wants the Senate to pass a resolution condemning the move that is "even stronger" than the one that passed the House Wednesday with a broad bipartisan vote.

"I was encouraged to see yesterday's display of bipartisan concern in the House of Representatives for sustaining America's global leadership and, specifically, over the damaging impact of hastily withdrawing that leadership from Syria," the GOP leader said on the floor.

"As the Senate debates our Middle East policy and contemplates what action to take, I believe it is important that we make a strong, forward-looking, strategic statement," he added.

McConnell chided the Democrats for not including in their resolution anything about the need to keep troops in Syria over the long term, something he noted might be politically difficult because many Democratic lawmakers and voters are anxious to bring troops home.

"My preference would be for something even stronger than the resolution the House passed yesterday, which has some serious weaknesses," McConnell said. "It is so narrowly drafted that it fails to address the plight of imperiled Sunni Arab and minority Christian communities in Syria. It is backward-looking. And it is curiously silent on the issue of whether to actually sustain a US military presence in Syria, perhaps to spare Democrats from having to go on the record on this key question."

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