New Bill Sends Damascus' Captagon Trade to Congress

This Jan. 3, 2018, file photo shows the Capitol in Washington. (AP)
This Jan. 3, 2018, file photo shows the Capitol in Washington. (AP)
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New Bill Sends Damascus' Captagon Trade to Congress

This Jan. 3, 2018, file photo shows the Capitol in Washington. (AP)
This Jan. 3, 2018, file photo shows the Capitol in Washington. (AP)

The case of captagon drug trade in Syria has once again been brought up in the United States after the issue was "dropped" from the Defense Department's 2022 budget.

The Biden administration is keen on fighting this phenomenon through a draft bill that was submitted by two Congressmen last week.

Republican Congressman French Hill and Democrat Brendan Boyle submitted a new bill to Congress demanding that the federal government "develop an interagency strategy to disrupt and dismantle narcotics production and trafficking and affiliated networks linked to the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria."

The captagon issue came to a head in Washington this month when, after the House released new compromise language for the defense bill, it came to light that an amendment dealing with the captagon issue had been mysteriously removed. In the end, Congress only expressed its support for cracking down on captagon exports in a non-binding statement

Although the Biden administration isn’t standing in the way of crafting such a strategy, observers note that it also has yet to prioritize the issue by crafting a government-wide and multilateral approach to push back against Assad’s narcotic trade. What’s strange about the situation is that the captagon provision received support from Republican and Democratic leaders of multiple committees in both houses that needed to sign off on its inclusion in the compromise text.

Senator Bob Menendez, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, speaking to a group of Syrian Americans last week said the amendment was removed due to an administrative error and pledged to get it back into the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). His efforts, however, failed.

Captagon is an addictive amphetamine that’s made massive inroads across the Middle East. Forces controlled by Assad produced billions of dollars worth of the substance in 2020 — a kleptocratic enterprise that props up the Syrian government and lines Hezbollah coffers.

The New York Times quoted a Jordanian official as observing a threefold increase in the amount of crystal meth — which shares some chemical similarities with captagon and can be made in converted captagon labs — leaving Syria since the start of the year.

In a joint statement, Hill and Boyle said: "Since 2018, narcotic production and trafficking in Syria has turned Syria into a narco-state to fund its crimes against humanity. It is important we stop this trafficking and source of illicit finance."

"The US government must do all it can to disrupt the industrial level of drug production currently taking place in Syria," they urged.

Failing to do so would allow the Assad regime to "continue to drive the ongoing conflict, provide a lifeline to extremist groups, and permit American adversaries such as China, Russia, and Iran to strengthen their engagement there — posing an ever-larger threat to Israel and other partners in the region."

"It is imperative that the US takes a leading role in thwarting narcotics production in Syria so we can continue to pursue a political settlement and permanent resolution to the conflict, as outlined in UNSCR 2254."

Caroline Rose of the Newlines Institute in Washington said the draft bill is a step in the right direction.

She told Asharq Al-Awsat that as more focus is shifted towards the illicit drug trade in Syria, then the new bill has the chance to succeed.

She added that she believes it is in the administration's benefit to approve the bill because it will provide it with the opportunity to exert pressure on the regime and confront the drug trade that has harmed people's security in the region.



Fears for Gaza Hospitals as Fuel and Aid Run Low

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
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Fears for Gaza Hospitals as Fuel and Aid Run Low

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled.

The warning came a day after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant more than a year into the Gaza war.

The United Nations and others have repeatedly decried humanitarian conditions, particularly in northern Gaza, where Israel said Friday it had killed two commanders involved in Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war.

Gaza medics said an overnight Israeli raid on the cities of Beit Lahia and nearby Jabalia resulted in dozens killed or missing.

Marwan al-Hams, director of Gaza's field hospitals, told reporters all hospitals in the Palestinian territory "will stop working or reduce their services within 48 hours due to the occupation's (Israel's) obstruction of fuel entry".

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was "deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of 80 patients, including 8 in the intensive care unit" at Kamal Adwan hospital, one of just two partly operating in northern Gaza.

Kamal Adwan director Hossam Abu Safia told AFP it was "deliberately hit by Israeli shelling for the second day" Friday and that "one doctor and some patients were injured".

Late Thursday, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Muhannad Hadi, said: "The delivery of critical aid across Gaza, including food, water, fuel and medical supplies, is grinding to a halt."

He said that for more than six weeks, Israeli authorities "have been banning commercial imports" while "a surge in armed looting" has hit aid convoys.

Issuing the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, the Hague-based ICC said there were "reasonable grounds" to believe they bore "criminal responsibility" for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, and crimes against humanity including over "the lack of food, water, electricity and fuel, and specific medical supplies".

At least 44,056 people have been killed in Gaza during more than 13 months of war, most of them civilians, according to figures from Gaza's health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.