US House passes fresh anti-Assad bill
The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly backed the Assad Regime Anti-Normalization Act of 2023 on February 14, The Washington Post reports.
The bill, which was voted in favour of by 389 to 32, will prohibit the US government from recognising or normalising relations with Assad or any officials in his government as well as enhancing Washington’s ability to impose sanctions on Syria.
The recently passed act will expand on the Caesar Act which originally sanctioned the Assad government, for war crimes against the Syrian population and was signed into law by then President Donald Trump in December 2019, and came into action in June 2020.
The 2020 legislation targeted numerous Syrian operated industries, including those related to infrastructure, military maintenance and energy production as well as targeting individuals and businesses who provide funding or assistance to Mr Assad.
A man facing international scrutiny, Assad clamped down on peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations in 2011 which led to the eruption of an ongoing civil war. Since the breakout of the conflict, between 470,000 and 600,000 have been killed.
The bill was introduced by Republican Representative Joe Wilson, House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, also a Republican, Republican French Hill and Democrat Brendan Boyle, who co-chair the Free, Democratic and Stable Syria Caucus.
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Justifying the need for such a bill, Joe Wilson stressed, “Countries choosing to normalise with the unrepentant mass murderer and drug trafficker, Bashar al-Assad, are headed down the wrong path,”
The passing of the anti-nomalisation act comes as the 22-member Arab League reinstated Syria in May 2023 after a 12-year absence.
Washington is hoping that the passing of the act will set a precedent worldwide that Syria must be treated as a pariah due to the Assad regime’s crimes against humanity.
4 Representatives of the Trumpian element of the Republican Party opposed the act as well as 28 Democrats largely on the progressive side of the party.
Republicans Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Thomas Massie and Paul Gosar are all darlings of the American right the latter of whom has been accused by critics of being an Assad cheerleader.
Sceptics of the bill have argued that further sanctioning Syria would add insult to injury given the dire state of the Syrian economy and that ordinary civilians would bear the brunt of it.
The Washington Post/ Gov Track US/ Congress.gov
