DAMASCUS: A high-level United States delegation has made a rare visit to rebel-held territory in northwestern Syria in an effort to highlight the “ongoing humanitarian catastrophe” there.
The delegation that arrived on Monday included three members of the US Congress Ben Cline, Scott Fitzgerald, and French Hill all members of the US Republican Party.
The Americans entered Syria from Turkey through the Bab al-Salameh border crossing on a visit that lasted about 30 minutes.
“Today, three members of Congress crossed into Syria to renew attention to the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe,” said Celine Kasem, a member of the Washington, DC-based Syrian Emergency Task Force, a political advocacy and humanitarian group, which organised this visit.
Kasem told that the congressional delegation was greeted by orphaned children from a kindergarten in the northern Aleppo countryside that Congressman Hill’s community in Arkansas has helped support for years. They also met internally displaced Syrians, opposition figures, and aid workers.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) estimates the population in northwestern Syria has topped 4.5 million people, with 1.9 million living in displacement camps.
Many Syrians fled to the region during the 12-year war fought between President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and their allies against forces opposed to his rule. “The children spoke to the delegation about how they have lived under bombardment from Assad, Iran, and Russia consistently, which displaced them and resulted in the loss of their families, becoming orphans,” Kasem said.
This marks the first such visit since 2017, when members of Congress went to Syria led by late Senator John McCain – one of the strongest advocates of US military aid for the Syrian opposition during the war. Last week, the opposition’s “provisional government” announced a meeting in Turkey between its leader Abdurrahman Mustafa and Nicholas Granger, the US State Department envoy to north and east Syria.
