Mar 19, 2020

The chairman of the House panel on foreign relations is leading a bipartisan push to maximize the US bankroll for the vast stabilization effort in war-torn Syria, after the Donald Trump administration zeroed out the American investment.

In a letter to the leaders of the House Appropriations Committee sent late last week, bipartisan members of the House of Representatives Syria caucus, led by Rep. Eliot Engel, D-Ny., pushed the panel’s leaders for the “highest funding possible” for State Department and USAID funding for Syria.

“Syria’s stability is essential to the long-term security of the United States and our regional allies. The fight against Al Qaeda and [the Islamic State] is not over,” read the letter, signed by a group of 18 Democrats and Republicans in the House. “By ignoring the important role these programs play in responding to radical threats, we will leave behind fertile recruiting grounds for the next generation of ISIS.”

Past funding for stabilization efforts in Syria supported efforts to get clean water running, rebuild schools, clear extensive rubble and demine areas so they are habitable again for returning Syrians, the writers said.

The drafters have also urged the Trump administration to implement so-called Caesar Sanctions against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad that would discourage investment in the country. Meanwhile, the situation has become more dire in recent weeks as an uptick in fighting has coincided with nearly four million Syrian and Iraqi internally displaced people needing winterization assistance, according to the United Nations.