World Tour: Syria seeks relief

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LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Up next, a World Tour Special Report.

Today, Syria’s interim president is set to become the first leader from Damascus to address the United Nations General Assembly in almost 60 years. But is he truly leading Syria in a new direction, or whitewashing violence against religious minorities?

Africa Reporter Onize Oduah has the story.

IBRAHIM: We really want to hold him accountable to to what promises he has been giving, and he's going to give.

ONIZE ODUAH: Morhaf Ibrahim is a cardiologist in Florida, and an Alawite from Syria. After the fall of the regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad, Dr. Ibrahim joined other religious minorities to found the Alawites Association of the United States.

IBRAHIM: The atrocities which started happening against against Alawites in Syria after the fall of that Assad regime, made us establish this organization to advocate for their rights, for their dignity and for their protection in Syria.

Syria’s interim President, Ahmed al-Sharaa, led the largest rebel group to overthrow the Assad regime. He previously fought alongside Al Qaeda and was designated a terrorist by the United States. He’s since promised to clean up his act and the reputation of Syria as well.

TABLER: In 1979 Syria was among the founding members of the State Sponsor of Terrorism list.

Andrew Tabler is a Senior Fellow with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and former senior adviser for the U.S. Department of State. He told Washington producer Harrison Watters that U.S. concerns about Syria’s support for terrorism and atrocities against civilians go back a long way. Over the years, the U.S. has increased its sanctions on Syria to choke off supplies and resources enabling the government’s actions.

TABLER: The most powerful sanctions were added to Syria in 2020, when I was at the State Department and those that was what's called the CAESAR Act or law.

The sanctions limit Americans and those who do business with America from investing in Syria.

TABLER: And it's the main now focus of the al-Sharaa government, because it restricts us investments and other investments into Syria to rebuild the country.

President Donald Trump met with al-Sharaa in May, and promised to temporarily suspend sanctions.

TABLER: I think that was the intention of the president, was to allow Gulf allies to invest in in Syria. So, you know, I think there's that for the the al-Sharaa government is arguing, no, that's not enough.

President al-Sharaa wants to see all sanctions permanently repealed. But it’s up to Congress to repeal them.

TABLER: There's a proposal by Representative Joe Wilson to repeal Caesar outright, one line in the NDAA…the National Defense Authorization Act.

Another bill introduced this year would link lifting sanctions to protecting the rights of religious minorities. And advocates say that while it’s more complicated, Syria needs the accountability.

BROWNBACK: We’ve got to get it done now. And I’ve lost these fights in the past…

Sam Brownback is the former U.S. Ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom. Earlier this month, he spoke at a press conference on Capitol Hill with Dr. Ibrahim’s organization.

BROWNBACK: I was involved in the fight to get religious minorities protected in Iraq, and we lost that fight.

After U.S. forces left Iraq, Islamic State fighters killed thousands of Iraqi Christians and Yazidis and displaced hundreds of thousands more. With Syrian fighters linked to the government attacking minority communities over the summer, Brownback says something similar could happen again.

BROWNBACK: And you will see yet another ancient Christian community run out of another Middle East country. There's very few places that any of the Christian minorities are left.

But if the U.S. could push Syria to take steps now to protect religious minorities, Brownback and others say this could be a different story.

With Syrian President al-Sharaa set to address the UN General Assembly, Andrew Tabler is watching to see whether he addresses Washington’s priorities.

TABLER: That concerns particularly the peace treaty and process with Israel, now known as the Abraham accords process…The administration has a related proposal on the table concerning the stabilizing the situation in southern Syria with the Druze population, to incorporate those areas into the interim government.

Dr. Ibrahim with the Alawite Association is doubtful that the former terrorist turned statesman means what he says about democracy and freedom in Syria.

IBRAHIM: I think he's very good at nice words and nice gestures, but actions on the ground actually giving everybody different impression about what's going on.

That’s this week’s World Tour, I’m Onize Oduah.

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