Representative Christopher Van Hollen, ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, warned on May 14 of the “unintended consequences” of US military intervention in Syria, including providing arms to rebel forces.

Van Hollen, serving his fifth term representing Maryland’s Eighth District, is among the most influential politicians in Congress. According to Roll Call, Van Hollen “gets near-universal respect from his colleagues for his intellectual firepower and combination of policy and political chops.” 

In an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor, Van Hollen praised the current initiative by US Secretary of State John Kerry to organize an international conference on Syria hosted by the United States and Russia. “The only way to get some kind of resolution to the conflict in Syria is through a political negotiating process,” Van Hollen said.

“You have the actors inside Syria, but this has really become a regionalized conflict. It has become part of the larger sectarian conflict in the region with, at the very general level, a Shia-Sunni split here, with lots of different sideshows. So it seems to me that the only way to resolve this is to bring the parties together,” he explained.