The Syrian lobby in Washington fails to pass anti-normalization bill with Assad

The efforts of the Syrian-American lobby to pass a bill to combat normalization with Syrian President Bashar al Assad have failed, after it was previously obstructed by the administration of US President Joe Biden.

According to Mohammed Ghanem, a former member of the American Coalition for Syria, the negotiations with Democratic Senator Ben Cardin regarding the approval of the bill to combat normalization with Assad have completely collapsed, due to the insistence of the senator’s office on making very large amendments to the text of the bill that would undermine its basic objectives.

Ghanem added via post on X, “We’ve been immersed with our allies in the Senate for the past two months in arduous negotiations with the office of Senator Cardin, who holds the position of Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in the Senate, trying our best to push the bill forward, and during the negotiations we have demonstrated our flexibility and willingness to accept amendments provided that they do not undermine the original objectives of the bill.

Syrian opposition organizations in the United States have sought in recent months to revive the Anti-Normalization with Assad Act, after about two and a half months of its obstruction by President Biden, despite its approval by the House of Representatives by a majority.

The bill prohibits the US federal government from recognizing or normalizing relations with any government in Syria led by Syrian President Bashar al Assad, and grants the US president the authority to impose measures that increase the possibility of monitoring commercial transactions that could violate sanctions.

It also stipulates that Washington opposes any other government’s recognition or normalization of relations with the Syrian president by fully implementing the sanctions stipulated in the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019, and Executive Order No. 13894, which includes blocking the property and entry of some individuals involved in Syria.

The bill prohibits any federal official or employee from taking any action or spending any amount of money that would constitute any recognition by the United States government, explicitly or implicitly, in any way of President Assad, or any Syrian government he heads.

Syrian opposition sources had previously quoted a high-level source in the US Congress as saying that the White House’s refusal to allow the passage of the normalization bill with Assad as part of the final package indicates that there may be other considerations regarding the policy that we don’t know about.

The source added that this leads us to wonder why the White House is so strongly opposed to the draft resolution.

Is there some kind of agreement between the White House and Damascus?

Or is there an understanding from the White House that confirms the policy of allowing normalization with Assad to continue?

This is unusual given the strong opposition to the normalization bill that we are facing from the White House.

The bill to combat normalization with Assad was first introduced in the House of Representatives on May 11, 2023, when it was unanimously approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, two working days after it was introduced, at a speed described as “unconventional to legislative norms”.

On February 14, the US House of Representatives passed the bill, with 389 members (an overwhelming majority) of both parties, Democrats and Republicans, voting in favor of the bill, while 32 others opposed.