US House condemns Syria regime for exploiting earthquake disaster

The US House on Monday condemned the Assad regime for efforts to “cynically exploit the disaster to evade international pressure and accountability.”

The resolution, which also mourns the loss of life following the twin earthquakes that hit the south Turkiye-northwest Syria border region on 6 February, was approved with a 412-2 vote.

The Syrian regime has been accused of using the disaster to re-enter the global stage after several countries withdrew their ambassadors following the brutal war in the country.

Most Arab countries broke ties with Syria after its brutal crackdown on protesters during the region’s Arab Spring.

Sponsor of the resolution Representative Joe Wilson said that the US will never normalise with the Assad regime or stop supporting the Syrian people: “We will not stop supporting the people of Syria to have a government they deserve based on democracy with rule of law, not authoritarians with rule of gun.”

READ: Syria facing ‘very high number’ of cholera outbreaks after quakes

The US has repeatedly said that it will not normalise with the Syrian regime and that it opposes rapprochements between other countries and Syria, even before the earthquake made it more likely.

Deputy US Ambassador to the UN Richard Mills told the UN Security Council at the end of January that “states contemplating rapprochement should carefully consider what the Assad regime has done to earn such an opportunity.”

“The regime, in fact, continues to behave as it long has – behaviour that rightly caused the international community to recoil in horror and reject dealings with Assad.”

Meetings between Al-Assad and Oman’s sultan, the UAE, Turkish and Egypt’s foreign ministers have been interpreted as a push to bring the Syrian dictator in from the cold.

Al-Assad has also been accused of acquiring international aid and the resolution calls for an “increased oversight mechanism” to ensure US funds are not channelled to the Assad regime.

It took three days for aid to cross the border from Turkiye using the only crossing that was then open for northwest Syria, Bab Al-Hawa.

The UN announced last week that three crossings were now open, but the US resolution urged President Joe Biden to use all diplomatic means to open all Turkiye-Syria border crossings.