Al-Monitor Congress Pulse expands Syria, Russia-Ukraine-Mideast coverage
Congress Pulse and "Trendlines" delve into the implications of Ukraine for US policy in the Middle East.
Al-Monitor’s Congress Pulse got off to a fast start this week, as Julian Pecquet broke the news on March 14 about a new resolution sponsored by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Edward Royce, R-Calif., and ranking member Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., calling on the Obama administration to develop a new US strategy for Syria in 60 days and withdraw recognition of the Syrian government, “unless and until the [Bashar al-] Assad regime and its supporting militias discontinue their barbaric slaughter, systematic starvation and other grave human rights abuses, and are granted full and unfettered access for deliveries of humanitarian assistance, even as other negotiations with Assad’s regime may continue.”
The introduction of the resolution, which even if it passed in its current form would not be binding on the Obama administration, came on the same day as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the Syrian political process as being “in crisis.”
Ban called for those countries sending foreign fighters and arms into Syria to cease immediately. He also dispatched Joint Special Representative for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi to Iran, which Ban said could play an “important role” with the Syrian government to re-energize the Geneva diplomatic track.
This column, as far back as December 2012, has regularly stressed the centrality of Iran to any political solution in Syria and anticipated that the ultimate “endgame” in Syria would involve elections, preferably after a cease-fire. Elections are constitutionally mandated to take place 60 to 90 days before Assad’s term ends on July 17 of this year.
