BEIRUT — Three members of the U.S. Congress made a short go to Sunday to opposition-held northwest Syria in what was the primary identified journey to the war-torn nation by American lawmakers in six years.
U.S. Reps. Ben Cline of Virginia, French Hill of Arkansas and Scott Fitzgerald of Wisconsin, all Republicans, entered Syria from Turkey through the Bab al-Salama crossing in northern Aleppo province, in keeping with two individuals acquainted with the journey. They weren’t approved to publicly focus on the journey and spoke on situation of anonymity after the U.S. delegation had left Syria.
Crossing into opposition-held Syria on what could be a roughly one-hour journey, the lawmakers had been introduced with flowers from college students from Wisdom House. The facility is a faculty for orphans that could be a challenge of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a U.S.-based Syrian opposition group that facilitated the lawmakers’ journey.
Hill has been among the many most vocal supporters in Congress of the Syrian opposition and his Arkansas constituents have been donors to the college.
The lawmakers additionally met with opposition and humanitarian leaders, together with Raed Saleh, head of the Syrian opposition’s White Helmets emergency rescue group. The group of volunteer first responders turned identified internationally for extracting civilians from buildings bombed by allied Russian forces combating on behalf Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The United Nations says 300,000 civilians have died within the first 10 years of battle between Assad-allied forces and Syria’s opposition.
Saleh spoke with the lawmakers in regards to the present political standing of the battle in Syria and on persevering with humanitarian efforts for victims of a earthquake earlier this yr in Turkey and Syria, the White Helmets mentioned on X, the location previously generally known as Twitter.
The final identified journey by a U.S. lawmaker to Syria was in 2017, when Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., visited U.S. forces stationed in northeast Syria’s Kurdish area. McCain had beforehand visited Syria and met with armed opposition fighters.
Also in 2017, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, visited Damascus, the capital, and met with Assad, a choice that was broadly criticized on the time.
Since the start of the 2011 uprising-turned-civil-war in Syria, the U.S. authorities has backed the opposition and has imposed sanctions on Assad’s authorities and associates over human rights considerations. Washington has conditioned restoring relations with Damascus on progress towards a political answer to the 12-year battle.
Control of northwest Syria is basically cut up between the Turkish-backed opposition teams and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a gaggle that was initially based as an offshoot of al-Qaida and is designated as a terrorist group by the United States. In latest years, the group’s management have tried to publicly distance themselves from their al-Qaida origins.
The Turkish-backed opposition teams have repeatedly clashed with Kurdish forces primarily based in northeast Syria, who’re allies of the United States within the struggle in opposition to the Islamic State.
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Knickmeyer reported from Washington. Associated Press author Omar Albam in Idlib, Syria contributed to this report.
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