US Congress Members Make Rare Visit to Northwest Syria

A convoy transporting a delegation of US representatives arrives through Syria's Bab al-Salam crossing with Turkey as part of their visit to Aleppo province, on August 27, 2023. (Photo by Bakr ALKASEM / AFP)
A convoy transporting a delegation of US representatives arrives through Syria's Bab al-Salam crossing with Turkey as part of their visit to Aleppo province, on August 27, 2023. (Photo by Bakr ALKASEM / AFP)
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US Congress Members Make Rare Visit to Northwest Syria

A convoy transporting a delegation of US representatives arrives through Syria's Bab al-Salam crossing with Turkey as part of their visit to Aleppo province, on August 27, 2023. (Photo by Bakr ALKASEM / AFP)
A convoy transporting a delegation of US representatives arrives through Syria's Bab al-Salam crossing with Turkey as part of their visit to Aleppo province, on August 27, 2023. (Photo by Bakr ALKASEM / AFP)

Three US Congress members made a brief visit to opposition-held northwest Syria on Sunday, the first known trip to the war-torn country by American lawmakers in six years.

Reps. Ben Cline of Virginia, French Hill of Arkansas and Scott Fitzgerald of Wisconsin, all Republicans, entered Syria from Türkiye via the Bab al-Salam crossing in northern Aleppo province, two people familiar with the trip told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity after the US delegation had left Syria, because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Near the crossing, they met with students from Wisdom House, a school for orphans in Idlib that is a project of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a US-based Syrian opposition organization that facilitated the lawmakers’ trip. Hill has been one of the most vocal supporters in Congress of the Syrian opposition, and his Arkansas constituents have been major donors to the school.

The Americans also met with Syrian opposition leaders, humanitarian workers and people displaced by Syria’s war, organizers of the trip said.

The last known trip by a US lawmaker to Syria was in 2017, when Republican Sen. John McCain visited US forces stationed in northeast Syria’s Kurdish region. McCain had previously visited Syria and met with armed opposition fighters.

Also in 2017, Hawaii Democrat Rep. Tulsi Gabbard visited Damascus and met with Syrian President Bashar Assad, a decision that was widely criticized at the time. Since the beginning of the 2011 uprising-turned-civil-war in Syria, the US government has backed the opposition and has slapped sanctions on Assad’s government and associates over human rights concerns. Washington has conditioned restoring relations with Damascus on progress toward a political solution to the 12-year conflict.

Control of northwest Syria is largely split between the Turkish-backed opposition groups and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a group that was originally founded as an offshoot of al-Qaeda and is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States.

In recent years, the group’s leadership have attempted to publicly distance themselves from their al-Qaeda origins.

The Turkish-backed opposition groups have regularly clashed with Kurdish forces based in northeast Syria, who are allies of the United States in the fight against ISIS.



Türkiye Criticizes Some NATO Countries’ Support for Kurdish Units in Syria

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with his Czech counterpart, Jan Lipavsky, in Ankara on Tuesday (Turkish Foreign Ministry)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with his Czech counterpart, Jan Lipavsky, in Ankara on Tuesday (Turkish Foreign Ministry)
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Türkiye Criticizes Some NATO Countries’ Support for Kurdish Units in Syria

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with his Czech counterpart, Jan Lipavsky, in Ankara on Tuesday (Turkish Foreign Ministry)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with his Czech counterpart, Jan Lipavsky, in Ankara on Tuesday (Turkish Foreign Ministry)

Türkiye criticized the support provided by some of its allies in NATO to the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, the largest component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

 

“The countries we have problems with... are America, England, and a little bit with France,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in a televised interview on Monday.

 

He added: “The United States maintains its presence there, and we are putting this problem on the agenda at all levels... Türkiye is continuing the highest level of diplomacy possible” as “it can no longer live with such a reality.”

 

The foreign minister went on to say: “We carry more sensitivity in our fight against the PKK than you (the US and the UK) do in your fight against terrorism, just on the other side of our border. It is out of the question for us to engage in any negotiations here.”

 

On the other hand, Fidan considered that stopping the armed conflict between the Syrian army and the opposition is currently the main “achievement” of his country and Russia.

 

“The most important thing that we were able to achieve in Syria along with the Russians is that there is no war currently between the army and the opposition, and the Astana negotiations and others made that possible at the present time,” he stated.

He added that Damascus needs to “use this period of calm wisely, as an opportunity to return millions of Syrians who have fled abroad to rebuild their country and revive its economy.”

 

The minister revealed that he discussed this matter during his recent meeting with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

 

“We are studying this matter. The return of refugees is important,” Fidan said, adding: “We want the Syrian government to exploit this period of calm, rationally... as an opportunity to solve constitutional problems and achieve peace with the opposition. But we do not see that Damascus is benefiting from this sufficiently.”