Ros-Lehtinen Urges U.S. to Reconsider Support for Weak UN Security Council Resolution, Failed Arab League Efforts

Statement

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released the following statement on the Obama Administration's position on the situation in Syria amid reports on the weakening of a draft United Nations Security Council Resolution on Syria and reports citing flaws in the Arab League's mission to Syria:

"If a UN Security Council resolution on Syria contains no sanctions, no restrictions on weapons transfers, and no call for Assad to go, but supports the failed Arab League observer mission, then the resolution won't be worth the paper it's printed on. Far from demonstrating international consensus on isolating the Assad regime, such a lowest-common-denominator resolution--even after the killing of more than 5,000 Syrians--will telegraph the failure and fecklessness of the Security Council and its appeasement of Syria's Russian backers.

"The Obama Administration should not support this weak, counterproductive resolution, and should also reconsider the legitimacy that it provides to the Arab League--an organization that continues to boycott Israel--when it comes to the regime in Damascus. The Arab League mission to Syria was a fiasco. Its head, Al-Dabbi, served as a top Sudanese military officer in Darfur during the Bashir regime's genocide against the people in Darfur.

"It is no surprise that Al-Dabbi's recent report sought to minimize the Syrian regime's atrocities and discourage international pressure on Assad and his cronies.

"What was surprising was the fact that the Administration invested so much capital in a mission whose failure was entirely predictable. Why did the U.S. support such a mission led by a senior official from another mass-murdering rogue regime? Why is the Administration trying to move a useless Security Council resolution that is driven by the Arab League and supports the failed mission?

"The U.S. should focus its energies on one goal: working to impose the strongest possible sanctions on the Assad regime. Our Foreign Affairs Committee will soon take up legislation to do just that."

NOTE: Ros-Lehtinen is the author of the Syrian Freedom Support Act (H.R. 2106) with U.S. Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-NY). The bill seeks to strengthen existing U.S. sanctions against the regime in Damascus to address the totality of the Syrian threat. The bill imposes mandatory sanctions against persons that transfer or retransfer goods or technology that can aid Syria's efforts to obtain WMDs and their delivery systems. Further, the legislation mandates extensive sanctions, including asset freezes and a travel ban, on senior officials of the Syrian regime.

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