The New US Bill… and the Junk Bin

The proposed bill looks like a junk bin in which anything and everything was thrown, with the hopes that something could attract a buyer. Also, with the bill introduced so close to the end of the current Congressional session and administration, with newly elected Congresspersons coming in after New Year’s, it is not likely to pass any time soon, if at all. However, it is worthwhile to focus on parts of what is proposed in it, as it is blatantly expresses the actual US policy in Syria.

Kassioun highlighted some of the main points of the proposed bill in an article titled The New US Bill on Syria… “Under the Auspices of Israel”, a useful one of which is a reminder that Joe Wilson, who introduced the bill, had also previously introduced a bill that recognizes the Zionist occupation’s sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan. That bit of information should preempt the wave of approval of the bill among the scums of the extremists within the Syrian opposition.

In addition, there are the following points with regards to the proposed bill:

• There is no substantial reference to a political solution, with no mention at all of UNSC Resolution 2254, and in fact, the bill basically states that the Constitutional Committee is pointless and that any negotiations including the Constitutional Committee must be preceded by certain conditions (thus, effectively putting preconditions on proceeding with the political process);
• Expanding the grounds for imposing sanctions to include officials of governments that have normalized or might be considering normalizing diplomatic relations with the regime, with specific focus on Arab states (this is likely linked to US efforts in the region for normalization with “Israel”);
• Renewed calls for the establishment of a no-fly zone (that is, pushing for remilitarization and return of violence of the crisis, much to the liking of the extremists within both Syrian sides);
• Reviving the slogan of “toppling” as a way to achieve transition in Syria (thus, injecting with steroids the extremists on the opposition side who still use the slogan of “toppling the regime” to hinder progress in the political process);
• Rejection of working with Russia to solve the Syrian crisis (this one is nonsensical and detached from reality to a point that is nearly comical, but in reality, it is an additional push towards obstructing a solution);
• Assessment of UN programming in Syria that is funded in whole or in part by the US, and based on the assessment possibly withholding US contribution and redirecting it to USAID programming in Syria (which is limited geographically, where this supposed “humanitarian aid” becomes an effective political tool in the partitioning project); and
• Enhancing trade with “free Syria” economic zones, which are defined as areas not controlled by the regime, Iran, Russia, or organizations designated as terrorist like ISIS or HTS, in order to promote trade among such areas with the US and US allies in the region, and articles / products therefrom would be exempted from duty for importation into the US and any sanctions imposed on Syria would be waived with regards to those, in parallel with stressing severing economic connection between the “free Syria” and the “non-free Syria” (all this means one thing: pushing towards partitioning through economic and political tools, especially through dividing sanctions).

Nothing Surprising

None of the above is surprising, as it is consistent with the US policy in Syria that we have seen in practice over the last few years, and indeed, with two main objectives of said policy that have been clearly stated by Jim Jeffrey, who recently left his position as the US Syria envoy. Jeffrey has previously and with the utmost insolence said that his job was to make Syria a “quagmire”, and after leaving his post, he declared that in Syria “stalemate is stability”. It is clear from the elements of the proposed bill that these two ideas continue to be the essence of US policy in Syria. It is also clear that the goal of successive sanctions, including Caesar, is to get Syrians as a whole to a state of extreme exhaustion, in parallel with the perpetuation of the differences and disparities among the areas of control, so that the tightening and removal of sanctions, in a selective manner, becomes an effective political tool in the partitioning process.

Tainted Syrian Hands

Western sanctions on Syria, especially those imposed by the US, including the latest bill introduced to further beef up US sanctions, are usually accompanied with waves of cheering and praising by Syrians, including extremist opposition figures.

Even worse are those who publicly demand intensifying the sanctions, which by now are clearly affecting the livelihoods of the majority of Syrians. This latest bill also blatantly pushing for reviving the militarization of the crisis and affirming the partitioning of Syria. Yet those people continue to cheer for such policies and demand more.

Some, particularly Syrians in the US or who have relations and contact with US officials go further to actually lobbying for these measures to continue and escalate more and more. The following organizations: the Syrian Emergency Task Force, the Syrian American Council (SAC), “Keilaback”, and Citizens for a Safe and Secure Syria are US-based organizations that have Americans of Syrian origin, and they have lobbied for and celebrated much of the US policies towards Syria. For this latest bill, the Syrian Emergency Task Force has already released a statement in which it boasted about supporting and participating in the work that went into the bill. Based on this statement and others, many Syrians have worked closely with Congress members and staff on the bill.

These are not the only organizations, there are other organizations and names that will all be revealed before too long. The important thing in the matter is that any Syrian that has clearly and publicly participated in supporting a bill of this kind or any project or initiative that goes against the political solution and against UNSC Resolution 2254, and that even supports partitioning of Syria and increasing Syrians’ suffering, any such person should be excluded from any activity related to the Syrian political solution, including the Constitutional Committee, and even from working in Syrian public affairs, now and in the future.

(Arabic version)