Washington, March 7-8, 2019: The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) held several meetings with senior-level officials from offices operating across the U.S. government, including the White House National Security Council, Department of Defense, and officials at the Department of State working on Syria policy, including the Bureaus of Near Eastern Affairs; Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor; International Organizations; International Security and Nonproliferation; Intelligence and Research; and the Offices on Global Criminal Justice and Global Women’s Issues; as well as representatives from the Office of the Secretary’s Special Representative for Syria Engagement.
During these meetings, Mr. Fadel Abdul Ghany, Chairman of SNHR, addressed various topics on U.S. Syria policy. Several issues were discussed, such as the humanitarian situation in northwest and northeast; the Iranian power projection; accountability for atrocities; reports of civilian casualties in the D-ISIS campaign; continuing violations and increasing rates of arrests in areas under the control of the Syrian regime; support for Syrian civil society; reconstruction in northeastern Syria; the path to free and fair elections; how to improve coordination and cooperation in the judiciary field, and effective sanctions against individuals and companies financing the Syrian regime.