Roughly half of all syrians, are displaced and the assad regime bears overwhelming responsibility for this destruction and extremism it has spawned. However, none of this would have been possible without the support of iran and russia, both of which intervened on assads behalf to extend influence in a region and counter the u. S. And its partners. With the support of the u. S. And Coalition Partners, the Syrian Democratic forces succeeded in sweeping isis out of raqqah in october. Of course, despite losing much of its territory in syria and iraq, isis remains a major threat. And theres also the ongoing danger posed by al qaeda, syria, and affiliates which maintain significant influence in oppositioncontrolled areas. So its worth highlighting two recent developments. First, the u. S. , russia, and jordan signed a memorandum of principles on november 8 maintaining the administrative arrangements in oppositionheld areas in southwest syria. Yet iran and its proxies have deepened their foot
Richelle carey this is. Also coming up. Our nations must remain United States pressure until north korea takes concrete steps calls for tougher sanctions at a twenty nation meeting to halt north Koreas Nuclear program. What they call the. Words of defiance hong kongs prodemocracy leader says he wont be silenced by a jail sentence. A national tragedy. Blame the government for the deaths of malnourished children. Agency for Palestinian Refugees has warned that a cut in u. S. Aid will threaten security across the region its also an announcement by the trumpet ministration that its withholding half of the one hundred one hundred twenty five Million Dollars that it allocated to that body its a massive cut from last year when the us gave more than three hundred fifty Million Dollars to aid and palestinians most of that went to the un relief and works agency for Palestinian Refugees better known as are helps pay for the education for half a million palestinian children and more than seven hun
And abandon the offensive and misleading term of chain migration because it paints a picture that was not reflect reality. Immigrants cannot sponsor their entire families to come here. Our system allows american citizens and green card holders to petition for some of their immediate family members to join them in the United States. There are numerous steps families must take to legally immigrate to the United States. Its a long and arduous process that leaves husbands, wives, parents, brothers and sisters waiting for decades. This system is so broken and slow that many people die before they ever have the chance to be reunited with their loved ones again. So, this image of immigrants coming in endless chains across our borders couldnt be further from the truth. For instance, the United States citizenship and Immigration Services have currently processing visa applications for the siblings of u. S. Citizens from 1994. Thats 24 years ago. This backlog is painful for Many American familie
Can strengthen intelligence sharing tips. We have mr. Fallon here to csis, and i was explaining, the new cycle has been quiet and slow the last few days, and we were so glad he could come here and help elevate our discussion, but he comes as an incredibly important time, certainly on the heels of several days of incredible news, not only security related issues, whether that was the north korean launch of a intercontinental ballistic missile, but also as we see the meeting unfolding between President Trump and putin today. Secretary fallon was here two years ago in march and the topic of the discussion was in defense of a rulesbased order, how that trance atlantic relationship can be used, and now in todays discussion, we will again look at the defense of the rulesbased order and see where we go from here. Secretary fallon assumed secretary of state of defense, his position on july 15th, 2014. Two days later a Russian Missile shot down mh17. That was his first few days on the job, and
Theyre only going to give me so much time here. [laughter] [applause] oh, come on. Get your for a few more minutes. I want to thank the Vice President. We give him one more great round of applause, thank you for addressing the governors. And understand the challenges that the governors have in dealing with all the issues and i appreciate the discussion of the opiate crisis which every governor sitting around this table understands and deals with on a daily basis. Its now my pleasure to introduce someone very special. Im honored, this is the first time in nga history weve had a head of state addressed the National Governors association and its only fitting that we have the canadian Prime Minister to address us today because in america, think of that relationship we have with canada. Not only the gigantic border that we share as governor. But also the friendship. I do not believe there is a better bilateral relationship than two countries in the entire globe. Has between canada and the U