Transcripts For CSPAN2 Discussion On Syrian Conflict 20240713

Government. Created by cable in 1979 and brought to you today by your television provider. Now its a Panel Discussion on the syrian conflict and International Communities humanitarian military and diplomats response to the crisis. The middle east institute post runs just over 90 minutes. Im sorry for the delay this morning. Its keeping our moderator busy but in the interest in time and we are on air on cspan, we should get moving. Ill be giving opening remarks, well get started on our opening remarks and theyll be here and spend we will start the moderator discussion. First of all, welcome to the middle east institute. Thank you ever so much for joining us to this extremely important event. As someone who has worked on syria and particularly on this nonstop for the last nine years, i can safely say events like this couldnt come a more important time. Im mostly not aware of any other funds like this one happening in washington these days. Im extrema glad its taking place. The humanitarian crisis developed in northwestern syria in recent months, its entirely unprecedented. Not just nine years of war in syria but in this whole world modern history. Yet, despite this year in the crisis, the world is yet to do much more in public statements of concern. My opening remarks are pretty brief because of a get carried away, ill say everything i planned to say on the panel. The one thing i do want to say is how grateful i am to have of being with this panel of experts and practitioners, all of whom will lend this shortly in various perspectives to understanding what remains a complex and extraordinarily important issue. First, on author barth left, the founder and president of medical ngo that seeks to reduce Health Care Disparity by providing free healthcare to refugees and displaced people. Hes just returned from a medical mission inside where he visited humanitarian partners, met with displaced people and treated patients in the largest hospital there. He said these experiences in the last few weeks and details of the ongoing crisis. Hes also a former president of the Syrian American medical society. The cofounder of the American Relief coalition in syria and cofounder of the syria face initiative. He was also awarded the chicago of the here in 2016, his medical work and that effort. As a fellow in the middle east program at the Foreign Policy reset institute, a doctoral student in Political Science at Princeton University and i should add, a prolific writer on all things syria. Primarily based on a Large Network of contacts, shes cultivated across syria as well and across the region. Shes also fellow at the thinking a progressive israeli palestinian. Shes worked at the consultant for International Crisis group, if lentic crisis institute for peace among other places. She is a decade of expense working with Human Rights Organization in the middle east and defending the rights of refugees, migrants, laborers, palestinians and religious minorities. Alex, who with be here shortly, an Award Winning National Correspondent based in cnn washington bureau, focusing on National Security issues. He spent most of the decade and abc news, based in moscow, jerusalem and london. He spent considerable time in the front lines of force and uprising in the middle east. He reported on the refugee and migrant crisis and covered the way of europe by isis. Among the first correspondent in cairo as the revolutionary exploded in many, many tips to syria on both the regime and rebel side. He traveled across ukraine as the Russian Military invaded. On behalf of the middle east institute, welcome to all two, or soon to be three of year. Im looking forward to this important discussion will follow. The last thing ill say one final note before we do and over, i want to let you know we are all going to be taking questions and questions for the panelist. Questions from all of you in the audience and from Live Television viewers by the interactive site. The information is on the screen here. Go to that website on your smart phone, any Electronic Device and enter the code 622500 will be able to submit your questions throughout the event, two poles which i will go through in a second and you can see other peoples questions throughout the panel as well. This will allow our moderator to keep an engaged discussion going with all of your input throughout the whole event. I should add the first part here, relatively state board one, should the u. S. Try to play a role in stopping the violence there, you can vote yes or no. You will see the results change as we go. The second one, which im hoping will come up because i dont have it in front of me. [laughter] it will come up in a minute and it will be similarly straightforward. There will be a second one with more answers to the questions, which will probably give us more of an interesting and more complex response. On that note, i will take my place on the panel. Hell bear here very shortly, we will start with elizabeth first. This is the history of the uprising, this was the 21st century, the humanitarian crisis of that portion. I wanted to draw attention to the fact that first of all, we were talking about the crisis rather regime in russia and later on as well. 1 Million People displaced in turkey. Those individuals, i would like cspan, talking about this crisis, more correctly most of them were displaced along the border. They are well off with others. This situation secures the areas from which people fled to allow them to return to airgas not under regime control. They remain there. We are talking about a crisis but these people have no hope there. In conversations with people there for many years, the desperation and the belief that they will die is prevalent. The fact that the ability to resist was happening. Trying to remain resilient. They might as well pick up and leave instead of trying, even with ablebodied men there. This is what is contributing to the rise there. I think the people who speak to the population there, this population even before the crisis, people who refused to live off the regime in these areas they are better off in the city. Its a strong population endured violence with institutions and mutual support, people are being pushed to the edge where they can no longer be in the community, survival for themselves and their children. The planetary crisis and portions, its very strong resilience. Also people are trying to help others. A tiny tiny minority, people being executed or people being tortured after being captured, this is something that is created this amongst the population. The regime continues. Theyre unable to stop the violence there. They do believe they are about to die. When i talk to people and try to understand what they do, what will they do . The border there while others are just saying this is our fate and this is what will happen. This has not happened, this is population, most of the population are children, 51 . Men participating in that there. Thank you. Thank you, elizabeth. Go ahead. If youre used to the culture, usually a family and their children, we are watching a war in syria. We should be using ceasefire and negotiated ways, acquisitions presented there. President trump in the region. What we are witnessing with leadership and the human un and war of suffering in syria. The media or policymakers, it is unprecedented. If we have 50000 people displaced in syria, no one will say anything. The media to respond with this crisis. Cnn came to me because they want to. The previous governor, this is important for us. So i was thinking that you have one corrupt government and this is compared to 900,000 people who have no health plan, and the media cannot keep these two stories. Our policy makers when the media decides that 900,000 humans in italy should be humans like us, our policymakers should Pay Attention to them. Our policymakers will Pay Attention to them. This is happening in syria i came from there a couple of months ago, i was in chicago and im going back and forth in syria with these ideas, mostly Northern Syria, yemen and other areas in puerto rico or columbia and the migrant crisis, it provides healthcare for displaced people and disasters. Im not saying thats because im from syria, and think that from that position. I will give you an example. People i met, elizabeth talked about this, surgeon for my city originally, to come to the United States every year for courses, when it started, he treated the regions there. The history of the syrian cris crisis, when the uprising happened and by demonstration, they are asking for political reform. The regime used a tactic to prevent what happened in your egypt with a change in the regime, so doctors treated them they also believed they had that regime and influences with american troops in iraq and basically unpredictable what they would do. The uprising through syrian and so forth, he allowed them in many areas and moderate opposition in many other areas. You have that. Also, if youre seeking an unprecedented tactic to end the uprising, with doctors put into position without an regime in russia. Thats what was killed in russia. The doctors who work there, by the regime and the regime, he was displaced there. Also on the committee and things like that, it was overrun by the regime, he continues knowing that he may not return to his family alive. Every position American Healthcare workers in the United States of america should be aware of these, they are treating their communities, can we talk about the recipient there, the main reason is the fact that you have hospitals and clinics treating children and families and the communities that. People told me that they will take the chance of living in neighborhoods and cities with bombs and missiles. A position that will teach your kids may have fever, they will leave. When you talk about health and half of the population of syria displaced, half of the population displaced. The main reason is russia to destroy them, from schools and destroy markets. Also showing on social media the extreme brutality that will happen there. Marcy these videos. Brutalities and areas. I will speak also about syria, and this is flooding there. They have to mitigate this. They have families there. You have one or two of displaced but in syria you have seven, eight and ten displacements of pop the population. Going north and now theres no more in the cities. If someone thinks they can go to europe or turkey or libya, they cannot sleep. These people are going there over and over. She wants to be a doctor, most of the children that ive seen there. Not only in syria but the whole middle east. The chaos and extremism, just syria, Pay Attention to it. Not because of syria, but people there. Because of the location, the countries that allow syria, the fact that many mingle through syria, more than anything, it is very important that you go and make sure of that. Whats happening in syria is affecting the United States. The refugee crisis there, we are seeing that in the middle east in 2016 and the populism in europe, it affected that in the United States. We care about us here. [applause] i kind of feel, i guess it would have made sense to me to talk about that but i was going to talk about the lay of the land and strategically but that was one that was very powerful, the human stories but i think weve heard from elizabeth already that over 1 Million People in the u. S. , 900,000 but over 1 million it started at the end of april 2019. Exactly. Over 1 Million People are being displaced just since the first, less than three months. They were already about 850,000 people displaced. The population along the northern part, along the Turkish Border, close to if not reached 2 Million People. Thats a massive population. They would follow a long time back, people are sleeping in fields, at least i think eight children have frozen ii death in the last two weeks because they have been forced to flee and with no shelter. When you have officials and when we discuss and talk about this thing unprecedented, it truly owes unprecedented. Security counsel and they advance the underestimated scale of money and equipment and abilities that they would need to deal with this crisis and they doubled their Financial International community to deal with it. Beyond that, the United Nations is stuck, there was a french proposal the last few days to issue a statement, just a statement calling this an emergency and calling on the International Community to do what it can for abilities and the russians vetoed that. Just a statement. The prospect for you and action beyond those statement is a tough one to consider. In europe, theres great pressure on the general to do something more. Silencing himself from the issue because they have other concerns in syria. Right now, they access the regime areas in its ability to operate in regime controlled territories. There is, i think the security conference was just a week or so ago, that conference was left with that, which they defined as the western world coming and lost touch with what it means to be an important player and meaningful player in the world. I think the crisis in italy can be almost total silence from the western world on the issue. Its a perfect calculation of what they called back. Theres no attention from our policy makers. Military on the ground, just to give you all a clear picture of where things have proceeded, in the last ten months since april last year, when they first really surged, roughly 35 40 of northwestern opposition controlled syria had been recaptured by regime forces. Nearly a year, theyve got about a third of the way there. They have moved faster over time than they did over on early on. To defend and withhold this military campaign is limiting by the key regime projected was to take control of the inside highway which runs, if you could picture a map of syria, from the biggest city all the way south to damascus. The objective is complete. The secondary objective, i believe, would be to capture the highway which splits in half and goes across into the heartland as the regime. We are not there yet but the key dynamic we have to be considering right now, especially in the last week or so is turkey. Turkey has had a military presence for a long while. It established what they called observation posts, they have explicit agreement with russia mark with the Syrian Regime to establish those operation posts. There are 31 now, 13 have been completely surrounded and besieged by the regime. So nearly half of them. Effectively without a site. That raises all kinds of questions about why turkey hasnt done more until now and expand the pressure on an issue, which frankly i think is existential for the president there. Whether he looked at his allies in parliament or his opposition in parliament, theres huge pressure to avoid single refugee entering turkey. Any other areas on the fervent border. The prospect of 2 million refugees or displaced people sat on the border. If they were to cross, they were killed. Beyond that, if it were to fall for turkey cumulated, we could very easily see the dominoes start to fall and the rest of Northern Syria begin to erode. It couldnt be much more significant and get their perspective has been limited so far. We saw military offenses by turkish soldiers for the first time yesterday morning but they were pushed back by russian airstrikes. That brings and another element, which is russia and turkey increasingly coming together. The Turkish Military has fired shoulder launched missiles, and russian jets in the last 24 hours. No insignificant development. They have provided their opposition proxy, not by jihadist groups but opposition groups with far more advanced weapon systems on the vehicles may have done in this area of the country at any time over the last nine years. They deployed ten, vehicles, multiple rocket launch systems, a highly sophisticated laconic interference system, which was theoretically target russian and syria just as some time. Yet, even despite all that, we continue to see the regime admits. My question is really, what is . They have issued a deadline for the regime to withdraw, clearly not going to do that. I would expect them to push back in a much more serious way by the end of the month. What happens then . How significant is it . They are really looking at catastrophic scenarios with continued regime all the way through the northern border. I will end there because we should get into the discussion. I want to apologize for showing up late. I covered the Intelligence Community for cnn, its been a bit of a turn over, shall we say the highest level and i say that not just to explain why im late but also to speak to how theres so much going on in this country and in the news thats drowning out going on in syria. Thats not an excuse but there is a tremendous amount of upheaval in washington and the u. S. Cnn has done a good job on covering the crisis. The fact is, this is an unprecedented crisis that isnt getting nearly enough attention. Elizabeth, you laid that out very clearly, i think for people who watch and have been observing and we are used to these superlatives. We are used to chucking figures and horrific stories and photos. So, if you wouldnt mind, if you could please put this in a bit more context of why this is a unique moment and speak a little bit to the bottleneck of why it isnt reading these people, it just seems so logical and yet, even things like rhetorical statements. We are talking about this crisis, and they are completely unprepared. Basically, when i spoke to friends who work on that side, the first 100,000, we can handle. The second we can handle. But then they are just gone. We saw communities, the population is able to afford the border and they, the population is extremely poor. They are unable to take on this crisis so we have situations in which the regime is advancing rapidly and people dont stay because they expect to be captured and executed. Thank you have whats happening as he entered. People want to flee, there is no connection to any political activity, the syrian government, we continue to ceasefire from damascus and yet they are afraid of being under the control of the regime. They see it happening to people there. So if the population wants to flee but they cannot afford to flee so they have situations where they come into convoys. Then they run out of buses for peoplesoft people start working on foot and fling, we are talking about a war in the previous century, with no vehicles around and they go for seven or eight hours and seek shelter there because they are so afraid of being captured alive. So this is something that we have never seen a situation in which a person cannot even find a tent. It does not offer protection from the cold, they are just protected from the rain. People are just living in fields. We are seeing more, im talking to doctors, cases where you have to amputate body parts. This is something, even if theres no willingness on the left to do anything to create ceasefire to prevent these people from eventually being captured by the regime or being forced to flee to turkey, breaking the border and fling to turkey, these children, this inability to provide that is definitely something and also the political question of why these people are fleeing and preventing this continuing rig right, it is fixable. Russia the regime, they believe they are bombing civilians and displacing them. This power thats allowing them to do that. They have a lot of people that duke shutdown. They are facing each other and regardless of power, but turkey should not be standing around in this situation. Getting those policies but at the end of the day, theyre the only force trying to prevent unsuccessfully, regimes from continuing to advance and displacing more and more people start the border. Turkey is not allowing people to cross, they have to smuggle to get across. People are stuck, they are unable to cross to turkey. It continues to advance and bridges close to the border. Theres a possibility of being shocked by Border Police and being captured by the regime. Theres a population for that. They have the capability to take them down if they are desperate enough, they believe they now face large scale mascara. This is what is triggering back. Elizabeth mentioned the un. For at least one year end a ha half, this will be happening. Also the understanding between turkey and coordinate from turkey and syria and one year end a half ago that this may be happening you have to deal with 1. 5 Million People being displaced. The un that this will happen and caught by surprise, they only have one billing dollars for emergency fund. Even then, yesterday and the day before, these irregular coordination scares, even then, you have more than 600 nations, you have 1250, then they have 1260 citizens. Some have 5000. Most of them have the human because the un made it very difficult and complicated to get back from syria. They make it very complicated. So the human has not provided the leadership what is happening. The main reason is because of this. Turn your microphone on. Can you speak more to that . What was the failure on, at least when it comes to the United Nations responding on back . You have a crisis like this, like whats happening in syria over the past nine years, yet many people who are affected when doing human beings who are eight times. The catastrophe in the 21st century and actually the 20th century in the war. So libya and what they are contemplating visiting, he has them on the border, they distinguish the sound of bombs or missiles or the sound of shriveling from they are not able because of that. Why is he not there . Why are they not in russia or china . We been having 67 hospitals being bombed by the russia regime and nothing has happened. They are trying to keep these investigations secret but they can make it public because hes not one in the crisis we are going to. Tell us about the doctors on the ground. They are telling me back there and this is their duty, but theres a shortage. The displacement and the regime, this is the way that you have it. He would expect them to have litigations for the diseases and copd and chronic communities. By the way, we seen that in crisis like this, people would have Infectious Diseases but there are chronic diseases. They are pleading but cannot go to the hospital because there are no doctors to treat your child with the flu and thats what happened in syria. Now we have shortage of those. They are supported by ngo. They have funding and they have to deal with that shortage. They have to deal with all of that. It child there, it difficult keeping that. You have 14 million on the streets. They are burning shoes and garbage to keep their children warm. In spite of that, you have the tense and what the un provided. They have heaters in the tent . Lets talk about that border with turkey, which turkey shut down several years ago. They already have three and a half million refugees in the country, they clearly felt like that was enough and at the same time, we have iran faking real voices about the possibility of a significant military and turkey already inside syria. You talk about some of those, what are, what is the risk of this escalating significantly between the turks and syrians and russians . I think it depends how much they are willing to take. My perception is an ex the central issue in the political future. If theyre willing to take enough of our risk from a think yes. Theres escalation. I think what surprised me is, i think we all know the turkish russian relationship is an important one. Its about much more than that. The russians are having a huge gaskin pipeline deal juicy arose because of an issue, when it comes to natural relationship, but i think surprised by how hard russia has done this. My understanding of the situation six month ago is that we would have already come to a compromised solution and russians and turks and say the movement, it would have been a terrible humanitarian situation we wouldnt be in a place where continue to move north they are not. I think all of that has a risk escalation. They have no choice but to gradually isolate, which is undoubtedly what we seen in the last week or so. They have probably nearly tripled the amount of soldiers just in italy, which is 3 of the territory for all think United States troops and eastern syria, the scale and military equipment, heavy equipment, far outweighs anything that United States has in syria. 3 of it. So they could do it quickly, the key question in peoples minds was the assumption that turkey might do that but it would do everything to avoid war with russia. That calculation has clearly changed. Firing shoulder launched in syria and russian aircraft yesterday, its a big game changer in terms of the calculus. This being placed into all of this. Really, i think we are doing with an unprecedented situation. The Largest Standing Army and nato with highly sophisticated military equipment stuck in this incredibly complicated war zone, facing up against russians as hard as you can be. In the resume which is compromised. Given the stakes for turkey in particular, i just find it hard to imagine they want. The big question which i cant answer, is if and when that does happen, how the russians will stall . They will not want to be humiliated on the world stage. They have a troublesome ally in the regime, who consistently has compromised the lesson. We are all hoping for a comfort line, is not going to be a good one for the three and a half Million People stuck there, my only hope is it will be where we are headed right now. Unless you think the u. S. Withdrawal has been. The u. S. Doesnt have a great deal of influence anymore. It was exceeding that three years ago when donald trump cut the support with partners in that position. That exceeded our credibility. Since then, the russians effectively brought us entirely brought in the airspace, with three strikes in the last three years. So yes, the sense to which there is an understanding whether its in moscow, damascus that the u. S. Is weak, frail, fragile and a president who doesnt give up with syria. I think that has emboldened all of those players to play hard again, the more coldblooded about the way they deal with these issues. Including turkey but quite frankly, when it comes to the russians being involved, they do control the airspace and not to be messed with. That is an added disadvantage for turkey. Turkey has to maneuver a complicated environment from a humanitarians perspective, hoping what it will do which is forced to cease fire. The risks are incredible. Much more significant than any geopolitical targets we seen in syria over the last nine years. Is going to ask about whose in charge and what that dynamic is but i want to get to questions from the audience, this one speaks to that. Is there an alternative to either control or regime control . What about people on the ground to see and with the international be willing to talk to that . The population, they are definitely with the jihadist group, the Pragmatic Group that is a dominant power on the ground. The support was quite limited before and now im up with the military and widespread belief that they are handing off territories and secret weapons, this is very widespread. Its even more. And particularly even more radical jihadist actions, they have gone, they flapped so much with the manpower. Its just astounding. They have hundred there so i think the only alternative that exists right now with hds and regime is basically turkish control and right now, turkey has about 15000 troops inside, by the level of military preparedness, they definitely outmatched them right now. Turkey has no interest in fighting a war with hds. It would be vulnerable and there is coordination between them and cooperation. Hds has helped turkey and isis operating, they were trying to capture them before they managed to locate them so i dont think turkey is interested in launching such a conflict. I think it is there to stay. This engagement and right now turkey has all leverage, the area collapses and we should put a wide scale, turkey has the ability to leave the state but significantly instruct hds or significantly influence what hds chooses to do. The leadership is determined to hold on, they see it with the governance, theres a regime change so to them, i think it is much more lenient than previously to engage with al qaeda, just this past week, they have the media, they insisted on having his name mentioned in an article and i quoted him, i told him that theres citizenship and previously folks with another group there, i mentioned in the article, they are definitely with their conduct, they are interested in engaging but at the same time, they are very determined to hold onto power and from the population, is intended to come through with that offense. Two things. Just on this, i think that vision released all of the visible scenarios on the table. Thank you start to see something which those of us called its some kind of established agreed status quo, maybe from the highway which is again, my humanitarian perspective, catastrophic things to consider and theres a reason why you call it that scenario, its not just because you have territory and densely populated but its all because of the government. I think turkey knows that, if you look at turkeys lives recent military deployment and all along there that they try to dry draw a redline on the map, they may be willing to agree on that, basically cutting it in half and leaving it with that control. Turkey would have no option and to upset the governor. The mantle of ruling that territory with or without turkish troops on the ground but turkey, my understanding from the turkish policy isnt that its a friend, its more that they have established themselves as the only organization, right or wrong, capable of keeping that more stable than their opposition rivals have in the past. I would imagine that it would have leverage to negotiate some kind of arrangement. The only other option would be the turkish message would be right if you want to continue, you know whats going to happen. The russians and regime are going to have the longterm status quo. The other civilian and potentially on the position and the very heavy turkish control or else. I dont know if we are going to get there but in all of the feasible scenarios i can envision from that is the least bad one on the table and the last thing is, the reason why they arent interesting component, i think theyve seen this for a long time. Privately, theyve been engaged in a very determined effort from a pavement reaching out to both of us and many others in the hope of getting westerners to interview them, give exclusive interviews, give them a chance to present this new face that they are trying to set for the world, for precisely this reason. International community will have to accept them, this kind of a scenario and it much into the earth. The International Crisis visited the hds and interviewed them for four offers but theres an interview with the leader of the group. Its all part of this strategy. Its not paying off a great deal but i think it exists for a great reason. The people as you do, a dump model that could work. The people on the ground, they tolerate it because of the power. As elizabeth mentioned, the fact that they would fight. When you talk to syrians, they think of it as an entity and not other entities because many people in the region see that they want to divide syria in different regions and when you talk about syria, many of them think of syria as one country, it has to be you knives. There should be an end to this, going through the United Nations in 2254, which extends that which means you should have that transition. They should have cultivation, it would allow them the ability to leave 6 Million People. Without that, we cannot contin continue. It is for the longterm. One important thing i imagine, in 200014, i had a meeting, before the massacre and talking about whats happening there. On behalf of the Syrian American in the president , i believe your legacy will be the same and ill let you do that interior. He left. He said it will be determined. I felt that his legacy did not do that interior but i think the legacy of President Trump also would be determined and shaped by what he does and he does not do and syria. It is unfortunate that the debate among the Democratic Candidates does not talk about syria. In the meantime, yes its important to know about mexico but its also important to know what is in it. I think cnn and other Media Outlets should be asking this question, is it really the work there . Are kindred should know about it. They tweeted about it. A few weeks ago. The whole world is suffering this. Not talking about that part of syria. I completely agree and i really think when they talk about that as being the best alternative, its important to understand the refugees. This is why its a better alternative. It allowed to happen under their watch. Youre absolutely right, it is scarred by what he hasnt done in syria and the Obama Administration officials now reflect and say yes, it is a mistake to draw a line in the sand with the use of chemical weapons. They killed 1000 people and reacted anywhere. They say we were wrong, surely the people who are working in the trump administration, fair tweeted that they are out of office, we should have done something. It happened on our watch and we knew it was coming, it was evident that this is the future but the regime will try and we did nothing to stop it. We issued statements from the prize and they had the opportunity for that. What extent is it important that the regime complete this takeover . You look at the map in the northeast, you have this one island that is with better regime control, how important is it for them to take it back . It is not all that important. Its the most important thing that exist today. Their principal is in the territory. Everything he has done over the last nine years is to reelect that vision. At any cost, to cleanse the country, as he has said. I think that is precisely, they had the market continued to flee. They have nowhere to flee to. Thats why this is so unprecedented. More broadly speaking, there is another element in the conversation from a strategic perspective, the regime is extraordinarily stretched, militarily, they have taken huge casualties in the last two or three months. They have died in the last couple of months including a high number which has more of an impact than losing foot soldiers alone. Theres a question in my mind as to how long the regime can sustain the intensity of the campaign that they have been conducting, putting aside all of the equations. Even more than that, putting aside the military dynamic, the regime has the manpower for the last year end a half with any kind of resource in southern syria. When it was reconciled, it was meant to be the perfect example of reconciliation in syria from a russian regime perspective. Yet, in the 18 month sentence, the regime has been incapable, not on billing, incapable of restoring any services in the south, they are crowdsourcing on the incident, just to rebuild electricity there. Beyond that, the russians have been capable of only deploying 100 military police for all of southern syria to try and keep law and order. What is the result . The insurgency, the level that we have the 350 in the last ye year, clarifying that syria has been a path toward new instability in the next year or two in the regime simply doesnt have the capacity to rule over the territory or control the government territory taken. To extend all of these resources for a tiny 3 of the map or 2 of the map, in a situation where the great expanse is also strategically stupid. Again, it tells you a lot about the regimes mentality. It doesnt give a you know what about the people who it reassert control over. It doesnt matter, the principal is all that matters. Reassessing control and telling the world that i am the president of syria and theres nothing you can do about that. That is what is driving this. The thinking of the regime, theres some way of defending his thinking, especially early on, he mentions that hes a doctor, it justifies getting f fat. So they need that so when you talk about the refugees and all the people displaced, these are people who need to be depopulated in the areas there. People who are displaced from them were not allowed to go back. The people allowed to go in, was a depopulated area, it has been part of the regime even before that. So now it is taking revenge. If you have a surgeon who has left and an area that is part of that, and i was affected, just a couple of days ago, he had a speech and he talked about every part of syria, i think this was part of that unless he hasnt pressured. One of the major debates that is certainly among our western countries is what to do with the foreign fighters and that really came up when the first turkish part happen from others all the talk about a foreign fighters in the prisons being held. I do want to get to another audience question and elizabeth, probably speaking when it come to jihadist fighters, what treatment do you propose for the thousands who are fighting in plus i probably in the northern part of syria and their families . I think its important to distinguish between the northeast and northwest. Northeast, they are in present being held and their relatives who are living in camps and the other responsibly for these individuals. In regard to the men, by the administration to put them on trial in the northeast and they will serve out their sentence in the west, legally Tricky Solutions because the European Countries have been allowed to put these people around a long time because theres no evidence of other crimes. With results to the situation in the northwest, there are foreign fighters, from china so there are basically executions in camps and the number of foreigners still operating their is quite small because basically we saw the major split that occurred within those states there. I says basically had foreigners during crisis and hds now, they were syria. There are some foreign fighters there, they have not participated or elected any foreign and the small number who are currently have or continue to be a threat was held by missiles. I think this is probably the way to go, the people threats can be assassinated. Overall, the fighters there, their numbers are small and decreasing rapidly. These factions and nutrition in the ranks and the latest defensive earlier this week, it was entirely lifted by russian airstrikes. The presence in the northwest is limited and they are focusing on fighting assets. If they start with something else, the u. S. Comes in, assuming that it seems to be the solution and they should have left hundreds of foreign fighters may be in the thousands but and also thousands, the fact that there are three feeling better. We should not pay the price for having these jobs come into their area but getting bombed in their homes. I want to mention this, they are very important but when the media focuses on these issues, you have tens or hundreds in some areas, the people justify in the mind or let the other 3 million and a half exterminated. This is the main thing about United States and a war against terrorism. When you focus about the few and forget 3. 5 million thats what people think. The work that you have but the same time he ever president of mcnuggets nations, we look at it in defending for human rights. The few extremists that people do not like. They use that as a pretext. Definitely. I had a meeting in ambassador a couple of years ago and i was showing him and a woman basically was dressing and he was looking at that, they were bombed by his jets. Look at the picture of the woman and he was said these are isis. In their mind, everyone is isis. They dont see cnn or new york times. Just to reiterate, just yesterday, the spokesman for the usled coalition, an interview in which he parroted the regimes talking points. Literally couldnt put ten. It is really a damaging thing. It is now being published all across russian immediate that a u. S. Military spokesman is effectively justified continued campaign they have to be the context in the broader understanding that the doctor has said. And im a guy at heart, and my gut tells me toys like the really bad guys. But having followed for nine years, i knew very full well that the situation, is about far more complicated than the priorities are totally different. And conducting a Campaign Like this, actually ironically will probably strengthen the extremist ideology. This gives a new blood, a new breathing for extremist. And it has always said that the world will give up on you. The west does not care about your life. And eventually, this kind of thing will happen. And to speak in that way, and then to see this carryon, is as bad as we can be, and pr policies, strategy, etc. And for the older folks, our country is focusing on governing a situation which the regime in russia. Sure it will kill a lot of them along with the civilians but some of them will will transform from an entity that is in charge of governing this territory. And then problematic, but yes governing this territory. Trying to provide the means of millions of people, they will have one of those responsibilities. Were saying that isis insurgencies, and results. And even from a terrorist prospective, this is an encouragement to an area of controlled by which could be mostly left alone. A cease fire project. They stated, with operations beyond the lines and it was often times a response to the regime attack. They will not want to attack. We are going in, destroying everything, killing civilians in the process. Syria and also possibly turkey etc. And in perspective to this operation does not make much sense. I think we need to start wrapping up. We can go for another five to ten minutes. What they want, i wanted to followup just sort of the u. S. Perspective given that we are in washington amassing off of what you are saying about the pete talking about this. In the debate the other night of the four policy was not something that was raised at all let alone syria specifically James Jeffrey if you dont know, is the former investor who is a special rep. First dessert syria, what extent do you think he has allowed voice this administration and, what extent do you think the issue is sort of review group to the highest levels. So i have Great Respect for investor jeffrey he had put more energy into this roll and i think any of his predecessors that. These are the past five years. And clear determination to continue to uphold the principles that the u. S. Embraced very early on in this crisis. But he has, along big challenge. Which is that the president of the United States does not really have the foreign part. He does not really know syria exists thus he might potentially see it on fox news in the morning. Its a what we have seen, primarily sense ambassador jeffries took on his roll, is that he has done many good things, he did the right things pretty is the put the energy into u. S. Policy in syria in two or three times the president has pulled out from under his feet, destroyed all of the progress he made. Could and then had to stop again. Investor jeffrey traveled to africa ten days ago. With the support of secretary pompeo, he did i think in my view, all of the right things which was to lend nato, rhetorical support in a two to encourage turkey to assert itself more strongly. An essay that you have our support as the United States. And nato ended that night, and is the most telling thing, the National Security advisor went on tv. And essentially said, the United States isnt going to do anything about it. Its a mess to deal with and we dont have any results to do this is none of our business. Pulling the rug out from under the feet. As he was still trying to negotiate with the turks to encourage them to do more. And then continues to be the problem. Obama and his administration and his balls but there was process. They took the wrong judgments so that was a process. This administration administration, there is no process in the structure. The state department has a very good thing braided every highly qualified team. They know the issues in syria back to front but they do not have the backing of the white house. And that is a real shame. Because dennis setback what couldve been some progress over the last three years over and over and over again. The best analysis which i completely agree was is the fact that even though there were many difficulties if there is a policy that President Trump in syria and especially what happened to the reporter. I believe it is shameful that in the muslim banner of course in the the last year only handful of refugees. Basin syria conversion 10,002,015 or 2016. And this is something that really we take on as a country. A value that we basis on. In the United States, its important that we are a country based on values and that it should not be determined on President Trump or president obama as president but prison truck did a few things in syria the dimmer right i think he was supported by the public in the United States. They are democrats or republicans. When he put out, and he punished the regime twice. It was something that he was supported on. When, there was in the country, he said that this was for the children fred when they have to suffer. Take care of them. They are freezing to death. There might be disconnect between the state department trying to reach you do the same things. And President Trump, show him the pictures of the children freezing to death and told him, do something. Prove that you have the upper hand. In syria must put in. Right now you have broken the news. About russia trying to mess with the election in 2020 and supporting present trump card and publicly on this issue. Lets prove that he does not have the upper hand. That syria is to hold the piece. President trump can prove to the world that he has the upper hand not putin. The template middle east official, was removed. In moved over to do energy. So right now there is no senior directive in the middle east in the white house. But when we finish before we started. That is on this humanitarian crisis n italy. And affected each of you, if there is a singular thing that the u. S. Or the International Community can do to alleviate what is now a Million People have been displaced. And many more within the public you live there. What would it be. We can talk about money, i think that president obama used to left millions of dollars to the advisors. We are perceived in this league leader. Including humanitarian assistance. Whether that is syria or other places. But in some, reporting 900,000 people who are displaced in syria. And that he is friends with, in arabia and quite and wince by the way, stop reporting in syria a few months ago, he can influence them to follow his lead. But what is more important than this which i think is more mandate is to care about syrians. Because they are special but because they are like us. And they care like us the dream like us. I mentioned the authority they wanted to be doctors. They want to be architects and we can give them the chance to be a doctor or an architect in syria. If we care about them like we care about her children. I think that the money, would help but that the concentration is an attainable. It is becoming sort of a place for people to unable to smuggle into turkey. Just smuggle themselves into turkey they are too scared to go under the control. But as the overwhelming majority of the population. This is a situation that cannot continue to exist. Basically this is way worse in terms of the humanitarian implications of it. So the First Priority should be ceasefire. It is more important than money. So people are able to return to their homes. There are people who have been living since 2012, is not something that we should accept credit at the very least, need to be stabilized. In the u. S. Is the ability regime. In russia and to carry out strikes. And i believe in a different scenario, it does not require boots on the ground. In such a scenario, ceasefire would give you the leverage from the troops on the ground. At least along the coastline. And then allow people to return to their homes. Still not in regime control all these towns are empty. They go on to give them opportunity to kill them in their homes. There threatens already. The ceasefire will stabilize them and let them live in their homes. International lead. And in the roll, for syria. [inaudible]. You mentioned these children, this areas under regime control. These people not to safe to return and live under those regime in this curtain situation. The regime needs to change or allow millions and left and also people who live outside of the country to be able to return the love and safety. Thus far, we sing year after year, snowfall in lebanon. People live in tents covered in snow. And dying. They know what awaits them. In syria, they will be arrested and tortured. The people are able to return home. This is not a solution. Focusing on syria, we are a society of civil provocations. The way we dealt with bosnia or south africa or other places like this. A couple of years ago the president asked why do syria and in earthquake. I said despite the homes in syria, one week after the earthquake, he sees more donations. The crisis, for the first time in their lives are the last 17 years in congress. And congress is that responsibility. They tweeted about the governments republicans about syria and whats happening in syria but we have history in the congress. From wisconsin, who every day in the morning he went to the third floor and spoke about genocide. For 11 years. He has 3260 features about gratifying the treaty. Someone in the congress can do that. The congress has also responsibility to push President Trump to do something in syria. We are a country of people. And what is happening in syria is a reflection of the apathy and the people in the United States. Whether they are faith leaders, the media, Society Organizations and so forth. And we have to reflect on that and change that. Will be quick. We have had a long list of recommendations. I agree with all of them. I think that one thing the United States has under trump, and more so under obama, pastrana red light in the sand as the doctors said, in times of these chemical weapons. If you think about that, essentially made a statement that of any chemical weapon is used, and even if it kills one person, just one person. We will conduct military strikes or some form of action. We bring this to a skill that is happening in italy, makes this policy ultimately absurd and i think the u. S. Needs to get his moral compass right. But its effective on what we actually care about and why. And get out of this, convenient political equation whereby a very rare use of chemical weapons a state that was only thing that will kill us or act in syria. Beyond that we think we need to get over this recklessness idea that they only care about things that happen inside and homeland and the only thing that matters, democrats these days, forever war is never ending. Bring home the combat troops. Loblaw, the trendier is that we dont care about the rest of the world no matter how bad it is. Why because theres nothing we can do pretty well quite frankly that is quite not true. Not talking about sending 3000 troops into syria but we are talking about for example, using the fact that United States is the most powerful country in the world by a country mile to generate a coalition and that was unprecedented pressure on the russians within the un and the International Community to stop committing more crimes on an hourly basis. At minimum, just use diplomacy. Then beyond that, is again as the doctors said, when the earthquake source anomalies or natural disasters, the world of floods in a humanitarian crisis response. The world mobilizes in a way that we have rarely ever see in any other condition bring why isnt the world doing that right now. You dont have to all just go through the u. S. Im not an expert on the mechanics of that. The United States on a coalition of the willing, can be flying supplies into turkey and trucking them over a Turkish Border crossing to assist. But we are not. What do we do it with an earthquake or tsunami and we dont do it when a Million People or 2 Million People are stuck in tents or in open field right now. In the winter. Extraordinarily important questions and thoughts. Thank you so much and thank you all for coming. [applause]. [background sounds]. [background sounds]