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GOP divided over calling out Assad war crimes

Two-thirds of the Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee declined to join their chairman’s call for accountability for Syrian war crimes.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (L) (R-TN) talks with  ranking member Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) pror to a Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing on Rex Tillerson's nomination to be U.S. secretary of state, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S.  January 11, 2017.    REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst  - RTX2YI4X

Senate Republicans are deeply divided over how — or whether — to address alleged war crimes by Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and his allies, complicating any congressional action on the issue.

Seven of the 11 Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee declined to sign on to a bipartisan letter on the issue spearheaded by Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and ranking member Ben Cardin, D-Md., to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson dated Feb. 22. All 10 Democrats on the panel signed the letter, which urges Tillerson to “ensure Assad, Russia and Iran are made to answer for the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Syria.”

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