The top Republican and Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee released a statement on Monday slamming Syria’s readmission into the Arab League and urging President Biden to use sanctions to prevent further normalization.
“Readmitting Assad to the Arab League is a grave strategic mistake that will embolden Assad, Russia, and Iran to continue butchering civilians and destabilizing the Middle East,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Gregory Meeks (D-NY) said.
“The United States must fully enforce the Caesar Act and other sanctions to freeze normalization efforts with this war criminal,” the lawmakers added.
The Caesar Act imposed crushing economic sanctions on Syria in 2020 that are specifically designed to prevent the country’s reconstruction. The measures have had a devastating impact on Syria’s civilians. The House recently voted overwhelmingly to keep enforcing sanctions following a devastating earthquake that killed thousands of Syrians.
What makes the Caesar Act sanctions so sweeping is that they allow the US to sanction any person or entity for doing business with the Syrian government. This means US allies like Saudi Arabia and Jordan, which spearheaded the effort to bring Syria back into the fold, could potentially be targeted. On Tuesday, Syria and Saudi Arabia announced they were reestablishing diplomatic ties for the first time in over 10 years.
The State Department has denounced Syria’s readmission to the Arab League. “We do not believe that Syria merits readmission to the Arab League at this time,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said on Monday. “We continue to believe that we will not normalize our relations with the Assad regime, and we don’t support our allies and partners doing so either.”
On top of the crippling sanctions, the US has about 900 troops in eastern Syria and backs the Kurdish-led SDF, allowing the US to control about one-third of the country, where most of its oil resources are located. Syria’s normalization with its neighbors could complicate the US’s plans to keep occupying the country.
“Lie, deny, then occupy”?
Nothing new. Same playbook but not the same result. There are a bunch of new sheriffs in town.
The implications of this are staggering. It makes you wonder who or what are now the real powers that be. Certainly they have no use for democracy or the rule of law. The USA is now bankrupt, both financially and morally, all by design, Donna.
Love your children lullaby, Donna! “Lie, deny, then occupy!” It’s catchy! But my OCD makes me want to squeeze “burglarize” into it to make it more encompassing. Something like, “Lie, burglarize, deny, then occupy.” But I’m conflicted because it rhymes better without it. …Anyway, I still like it way better than: “Raze, Sack, Occupy!” (Sarcasm alert)
If the US persists in punishing their own client states they will only hasten the effort of those states to exit the dollar orbit. More evidence of imperial overreach, a harbinger of decline.
At this point, the tide of de-dollarization doesn’t look like it can be slown, let alone stopped or reversed.
The US regime has abused its petrodollar / reserve currency perks too badly for too long to likely lure back any of the players who’ve finally started moving away.
And mulling the possibility of a central bank digital currency — of which particular units could just be voided at will – – is going to result in even more flight from the dollar.
Americans have been living on a monetary (and fiscal) sugar high since the end of World War Two. The crash isn’t going to be pretty.
Amen. You all keep making fun of my math skills but I proved it a long time ago in my unifying theory: “Neocon = Evil * Stupid * MC squared.” (Sarcasm alert)
It is the truth. But why Syria? Is Syria a canary in the mine? What does it portend? With the loss of the Iranian saga, is Syria gaining more in significance? Why fear of peace and normalization?
“The crash isn’t going to be pretty.”Twice predicted by J. M. Keynes. One: After the Versailles Peace Treaty was signed. Two: At the Bretton Woods Conference of 1944.
Fundamental: Monetary agreements which are iron-clad, hence cannot adjust to fundamental changes are doomed to fail. The death throes of the dollar standard have lasted much too long hence have generated untold suffering.
Presidents Trump and Biden strike me as financial King Canutes who order the bad tide to recede. The tide does not obey.
Add-on: and MAGA-2 will not do any good either.
The cruelty of these “people” cannot be overstated. Truly, much of the world can’t wait for the US to lose its self-designated world police role.
Let’s not get carried away.
Yes, Biden and his neocon henchpersons are doing terrible things. And the faster this senile old goat leaves the WH, the better.
And yes, American governments have acted horribly since at least 9/11 (even Trump was for stealing Syrian oil. And he promised to leave both Syria and Afghanistan. He never did either).
But almost every, single medium/large nation’s government has done horrible things over the last 20 years.
You want just part of the list?
– China’s genocidal treatment of the Uyghurs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyghur_genocide
– GB/America backing the Saudi-led coalition that blockaded Yemeni ports and directly caused 85,000 Yemeni children to starve to death.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famine_in_Yemen_(2016%E2%80%93present)
– Russia invaded a sovereign nation (Ukraine). And please save the excuses…what they did was illegal under international law.
– NATO (and all the nations who assisted) actively taking a side in the Libyan Civil War. When it was none of their business as Libya was NOT a NATO nation and they were not attacking a NATO nation. And it (partially) resulted in the mess that is Libya today.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/03/20/nato-killed-civilians-in-libya-its-time-to-admit-it/
And on and on.
Blaming all the world’s problems on America is, imo, simplistic and erroneous.
Yes, America since 9/11 has been terrible for the world.
But so have many, MANY other nations.
What Wars said … and also, not being responsible for all the worlds problems is different from doing a great deal of evil, of being the “greatest purveyor of violence in the world”, as MLK put it. I’d like us not to be that. You object?
And no one is advocating for any of the other many nations to be the self-designated world police either. And no, there doesn’t have to be one.
The US doesn’t recognize international laws – why then use that as some standard that needs to be adhered to?
Maybe it is time for the Arab league to seek a UN resolution condemning the US invasion of Syria. I really don’t understand our beef with them. When we had prisoners post 9-11 that needed really enthusiastic questioning we gave them to Syria to soften them up.
I have been asking myself for years why Hillary was so hell-bent on regime change in Syria. (It’s true, she did it with Obama’s blessing. But she continued to do it after he realized that the Legislature did not support him.)
Granted, they have some oil, and Israel certainly wants to control their water. But I keep coming back to the idea that her most important goal was to shut down Russia’s naval base at Tartus.
It was Washington Post and the Kagans who were anxious for regime change in Syria and from there launching WWIII on Russia. Obama of course said “Assad must go” and like Trump after him criminally spent billions of US tax dollars paying for weapons and jihadists to overthrow the country. Trump bombed Syria 10 wks after his inauguration allegedly because a few jihadists in Idlib complained. Idlib is of course 100% jihadist. It wd’ve taken months of investigation on the ground to prove jihadists’ complaints, but he didn’t wait, bombed away and was patted on the head by WaPo. In 2013 when Obama started w Putin to bring peace to Syria, WaPo & the Kagans freaked out, started publishing that Obama was “weak.” Obama then invited Kagan to private lunch in WH, and Obama flipped back to preaching hate against Syria & Russia. As to the water, Israel doesn’t need water, in fact has so many desalination plants that it supplies water to other countries. Pentagon totally ignored Trump for 4 years. Whatever he did was on their orders including annexing one third of Syria.
This was a real eye opener for me. Thanks.
I did some investigating. It didn’t surprise me to discover that Robert Kagan is married to Victoria Nuland.
What can you tell me about the motivation for Kagan’s hostility towards Assad.
The Kagans have a family history dedicated to war profiteering.
A Family Business of Perpetual War [Consortium 2015]
Motivation?
Nuland is a Zionist.
Iran and all of the Arab countries are in the SCO, the EAEU, the BRI or are in line to be members so its not possible to Sanction them.
Shove your arrogance where the sun doesnt shine yank!
“Boundless ambition, arrogance and permissiveness inevitably lead to tragedy… We consider any supremacist ideology to be by its nature disgusting, criminal and deadly.”
Vladimir Putin 5-9-23
http://www.defenddemocracy.press/putin-promises-victory-in-the-war-unleashed-against-russia/
“…allowing the US to control about one-third of the country, where most of its oil resources…” This proves Dave is more of a polite gentleman than me. See, I would have used the word “steal” somewhere in that sentence. But that’s just me being the Neanderthal that I am. (Sarcasm alert)
In international free trade the US dollar is meant to be a monetary benchmark to peg the values of goods and services traded.
Our governments have increasingly used that specific use of the dollar for political pressure and submission. Such a dual system cannot endure because it will end in monetary slavery with us being the slave owners.
I resent the US being the ‘bully on the block’, given it is not even our block….
Sanctions?
This call for ineffectual sanctions is beginning to be akin to “stern letters of concern” and various “resolutions of continuing support”.
I’m pretty sure the Saudis are not quivering in fear and worry over sanctions screwing up the burgeoning peace.
Prevent…?! It’s already done… Sanction all you want, it’s not gonna affect any members since they would trade in their own currency…!
This business of ruling the world is very difficult, and it keeps us awake at night. How dare the countries most impacted by their relationship with Syria act without our permission.
– a verse from the neocon bible (Satire)
You gotta admit their self-assurance is an awesome thing. Historians will marvel at their will to persevere to the very extremity of Orwellian absurdity, a testament to an infinite human capacity for mendacity in pursuit of the utmost in filthy lucre.
Makes you wonder. What is this all about? This has nothing to do with the interests of American economy, interests of maintaining peace and security of American nation.
This feels like an ancient feud, us being dragged into somebody’s elses world, populated with zombified mythical creatures in need of my participation for purposes unknown.
Do these sponsors have a clue as to the purpose of their anguish? It seems we just need to leave well enough alone. But we cannot. Why?
Syria is an important piece in the geopolitical picture. If Syria aligns with Russia, then Russia gains more access to Syria’s Mediterranean ports. And if Iran and Iraq mend fences and Syria joins the Arab league, then the BRICS alliance consolidates a further large chunk of real estate with Mediterranean access. I think that is why the US is willing to spend so much on disrupting Syria. Its Middle East influence is at risk.
I think Iran and Iraq have already mended fences; the only thing keeping them from even closer relations is our presence in Iraq and Syria, a thinly-veiled threat to keep that from happening.Everywhere one looks, the biggest obstacle to peace and progress is….Us.
How delicious witnessing old allies abandoning the yesteryears. Of course I expect some sort of BS news to come out of Syria.
“Saudi Arabia and Jordan, which spearheaded the effort to bring Syria back into the fold, could potentially be targeted”
Go ahead and the Saudis will cut off oil to the criminal US.
While Biden wouldn’t come out and say it, his emotional response would be something along the lines of “please, B’rer Bear, don’t throw me into the briar patch!”
Between the usual presidential imperative to keep oil prices high (so that US shale extraction is profitable), and this particular administration’s emphasis on both “Buy American” idiocy and artificially accelerated electrification, he’d love it. He’d have to publicly complain about it, of course. But he’d still love it.
The man is a pimp for the MIC and always has been. His foreign policy credentials never progressed beyond what he displayed in his first year on the Senate foreign relations committee.
Added to the fact that his advisors on foreign policy belong in a video arcade, we have the present worldwide clusterfu*k. Their incompetence in Ukraine will look like a walk in the park when they decide to ramp up their lunacy with China.
I sincerely hope that the Arab League tells the jerks that claim to represent me as “diplomats” to butt the f*ck out
All sanctions do is:
1) hurt the poor the most. Affect the wealthy/powerful the least.
2) give the leaders a source of blame for all of the problems in their nation.
‘No, I am not the reason the nation sucks. It is the Americans and their sanctions who are to blame.’
And the ignorant masses – being ignorant – buy it.
You would think the American idiots would have realized this after Cuba. Generations of embargos deliberately designed to rid the nation of communism. Well, it failed miserably.
General, all-encompassing sanctions never work.
The “Caesar Act” is an unfortunate name for the Imperial power to use, especially when serving Israel against the entire Arab League.
Can’t have “Syria and Iran continuing to butcher civilians in the middle east”. That’s our job.
What will be really funny is, after Syria and Turkey reestablish relations, and begin doing business again, if the US imposes sanctions on Turkey – a NATO ally; at the same time we are trying to bribe Turkey to drop it’s objection’s to Sweden’s membership. I swear, with these knuckleheads, the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.
“Readmitting Assad to the Arab League is a grave strategic mistake that will embolden Assad, Russia, and Iran to continue butchering civilians and destabilizing the Middle East,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Gregory Meeks (D-NY) said.
While giving the real destabilizing force in the region, the apartheid practicing terrorists in Israel $4 billion a year. And if we want to talk about butchering civilians, those mentioned would be considered amateurs as compared to the US.
“The United States must fully enforce the Caesar Act and other sanctions to freeze normalization efforts with this war criminal,” the lawmakers added.
Calling someone a war criminal while arguing for enforcement of sanctions that could literally starve millions of those civilians these a$$holes seemed so concerned about? And they say this sh*t out loud.
Washington doesn’t care a rat’s ass about how many people starve to death or die from disease due to sanctions. These people are to team Biden nothing but cyphers.
All this crap we hear about what a decent guy uncle Joe is, is just that – crap. I wouldn’t let him onto my property.
ALL Arab states voted to re-admit Syria to their racial organization, except for Qatar which abstained (to curry favor with Biden) but didn’t vote against.
But McCaul and Meeks, who don’t live in the region, know that it’s a “strategic mistake”. Oh, and of course it’s about Russia and Iran.
That’s how you get campaign money and support from AIPAC et al.
All U.S. foreign policy is about what’s good for Israel. Syria was a staunch U.S. ally, just like Iraq was when it invaded Iran on Washington’s behalf. And the Iranians did not oppose the U.S., but had the CIA target them anyway in Operation Ajax. A secular Alawite-led Syria, a secular Sunni-led Iraq, a Shia Iran, all targeted for the crime of opposing the Palestinian genocide.
Three states, very different, at odds with each other, but all somehow still declared enemies of the U.S. The one factor they had in common was supporting the Palestinians.
And Russia supported Syria and Iran, so they’ve been targeted and sanctioned for decades.
Just confirms my view that the current crop of politicians in DC are worthless pieces of crap. Ugliest government (excluding hard working civil employees who get up every day and actually go to work) I have ever witnessed – all three branches.
Throw all the bums out.
While the Congress demands sanctions, Saudi Arabia announces they are reopening their embassy:
(From Asharq-Al-Awsat)
Saudi Arabia and Syria will reopen diplomatic missions between the two countries now that relations have improved 11 years after the facilities were closed, the two nations foreign ministries said Tuesday.
The announcements came nearly a month after Syria and Saudi Arabia said they were moving toward reopening embassies and resuming airline flights. That had followed a visit by Syria’s top diplomat to the Kingdom, the first since Saudi Arabia cut off diplomatic relations with Syria in 2012 and a visit by Syria’s foreign minister to Riyadh.
On Sunday, the 22-member Arab League agreed to reinstate Syria, ending a 12-year suspension and taking another step toward bringing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad back into the fold.
Syria was widely shunned by Arab governments over the Assad government’s brutal crackdown on protesters in a 2011 uprising that descended into civil war. The breakdown in relations culminated with Syria being ousted from the Arab League.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday that the reopening of its embassy in Damascus aims “to strengthen security and stability in the region.” It did not say when the embassy will reopen, adding that the move follows the Arab League’s decision to reinstate Syria’s membership.
Syria’s Foreign Minister later said that Damascus will resume work at its mission in Saudi Arabia. https://english.aawsat.com/gulf/4319946-saudi-arabia-syria-reopen-embassies-restoring-relations%C2%A0
From Mr. DeCamp’s last pararaph: “US…backs the Kurdish-led SDF, allowing the US to control
about one-third of the country, where most of its oil resources are
located. Syria’s normalization with its neighbors could complicate the
US’s plans to keep occupying the country.”…So the “Kurdish-led SDF” allows “the US to control” where most “oil resources” are located?
This isn’t an accurate description of the situation and gives cover to the greatest criminal enterprise in the world today, US taxpayer funded elites. The “SDF” was invented by US and funded by US taxpayers. The SDF doesn’t have to “allow” US to do anything, US does whatever it wants. US doesn’t “control” one-third of the country, it has effectively annexed it. Mr. DeCamp allows that “most of its oil resources are located” there. So what? The fact is the US has criminally seized one third of Syria, criminally seized most of the country’s oil, sells it for its own profit, denying starving Syrians. The same Syrian land happens to be its most arable, but US refuses to allow starving Syrians to plant crops on their own land. A US neocon has proudly referred to the remaining Syrian land as “rubble.”