Mar 21, 2014

The crisis in Crimea will continue to dominate the foreign policy agenda when Congress returns next week, but Middle East policy won’t be forgotten.

As Syria enters its fourth year of conflict, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday on the “next steps” for US policy after the failure of the Geneva talks. Former Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson is slated to testify in her first Senate appearance since being confirmed as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs.

The hearing comes as lawmakers are urging the Obama administration to provide some new direction for dealing with Syria and especially addressing the humanitarian crisis. The push comes as the UN’s Commission of Inquiry on Syria issued an updated report this week accusing al-Qaeda-linked militants with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant of mass executions of detainees and the Bashar al-Assad regime of increasing its use of indiscriminate weapons, notably barrel bombs.

Foreign Relations Near East subcommittee Chairman Tim Kaine, D-Va., introduced a resolution last week demanding that the Obama administration present Congress with a new humanitarian strategy within 90 days. And nine senators of both parties signed on to a letter urging President Barack Obama to “engage Congress as your team moves forward in developing and implementing policy options.”

House members are also demanding a Syria policy reboot. The chairman and ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs panel, Reps. Ed Royce, R-Calif., and Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., have introduced their own humanitarian aid resolution, which requests the administration to present a strategy within 60 days and urges the administration to stop legally recognizing Assad, as Al-Monitor first reported last week.