Then very swiftly, alex will be here to start moderated discussion. First of all, welcome to the middle east institute. Thank you ever so much for joining us for this extremely important event. As someone who has worked on syria and particularly on idlib nonstop for the last nine years, i can safely say that events like this couldnt come at a more important time. Im also not aware of any other events like this one happening in washington these days, so im extremely glad its taken place. The american crisis that is developed in northwestern syria in recent months is entirely unprecedented. Not just after nine years of war in syria, but in this whole worlds modern history. And yet despite the sheer enormity of the crisis, the world has really get to do more than issue public statements of concern. Im going to keep my opening remarks pretty brief because if i get carried away, i will end up saying everything i i plan to say on the panel. But one thing i do want to sit say from the outset as a grateful i am to have such an esteemed panel of experts and practitioners, all of whom will lend an invaluable perspective to understanding what remains a complex but an extraordinarily important issue. First on our far left we have dr. Zaher sahloul who is the founder and president of medglobal, and medical in june of that seeks to reduce healthcare disparity by providing Free Health Care to refugees and displaced people. Dr. Sahloul has just returned from a medical mission inside idlib, where he visited humanitarian partners, met with recently displaced people in idp camps and treated patient in the largest hospital Still Standing in idlib. He shared his experiences in the last few weeks in details of the ongoing crisis with the u. N. Secretarygeneral office, you and key you member states. Dr. Sahloul is also a former president of the Syrian American medical society, the cofounder of the American Relief coalition for syria, and a cofounder of the syria take initiative. Best syria the syria faith initiative. He was also awarded the chicago 2016 of the year into by his medical work. Elizabeth tsurkov is a fellow and middle east program at Foreign Policy research institute. Shes a doctoral student in Political Science at princeton university, and i should add a prolific writer on all things syria. Her research is primarily based on a Large Network of contacts that she has cultivated across syria as well as in the region. She is also a Research Fellow at the forum for regional thinking, a progressive israelipalestinian think tank based in jerusalem. Elizabeth has worked as a consultant for the International Crisis group, the atlantic council, and the European Institute for peace, among many other places. She has a decade of experience working with human rights organizations in middle east and defending the rights of refugees, migrants, laborers, palestinians and ethnic and religious minorities. Alex marquardt, who will be here shortly, is an awardwinning National Correspondent based on cnn Washington Bureau focusing now on National Security issues. Alex spent most of the past decade as a Foreign Correspondent for abc news based in moscow, jerusalem, beirut and london. He spent considerable time on the front lines of wars and uprisings in the middle east. He reported on the refugee and migrant crisis here to cover the of terror attacks in europe but refugee and migrant crisis. He covered the terror attack in europe by isis. He was among the first correspondents when the revolution exploded and made many trips in syria to report on the war from both the regime and rebel sites. He was on the ground in gaza during the wars with israel and he traveled across ukraine as the Russian Military invaded. So on behalf of the middle east institute, welcome to soon to be the three of you. I am really looking forward to this important discussion. One final note before we hand ll be taking questions for the panelists and polling pullings from questions from you in the audience and our Live Television site. S via an interactive i believe the information is on the screen here. If you go to that website on your smartphones for any Electronic Device and enter the code 622500, you will be able to submit your own questions throughout the event, answer to the polls which i will go through in a second anytime, and you can also look at other peoples questions throughout the panel as well. It will allow our moderators to keep unengaged discussion going with your input throughout the whole event. I should add that the first poll is relatively straightforward, should the u. S. Tried to play a role in stopping the violence in idlib . You can vote yes or no. You will see the results change as we go and the second one , which i am hoping will come up because i dont have it in front of me, itll come up in a minute and it will be similarly straightforward. There will be a second one with more answers to the question, which will probably give us a bit more of an interesting and a more complex response. On that note, i will go and sit and take my place on the panel. Alex has arrived, he will be here shortly. We will start perhaps with elizabeth first. Perhaps i will follow on, and then dr. Sahloul will conclude. [chatter] thank you so much for coming here. This is a crucial moment in the history of the syrian uprising that has turned into a civil war. I think when we refer back to this time, also in the history of the 21st century, this is essentially a humanitarian crisis of extreme proportions, and it actually has significant potential to i wanted to draw attention to the fact that, first of all, we are talking about displacement crisis. Since the start of the offensive by the regime and russia and then later a run in forces joined in as well, we are talking about one Million People toplaced from their homes was the border with turkey. Those individuals cannot return to their homes unless a ceasefire is put in place. These people would not be able to return. We are talking about the start of a protracted this placement crisis or more correctly, the acceleration of a displacement crisis with most of the population, about 3 Million People, most of them displaced from their homes. No longer living in their homes. They are living along the border with turkey in tents if they are lucky. In apartments that they rent if they are welloff, relative to others. And just outside in the cold, under trees if they cannot find a friend. This situation will not improve unless we secure the areas from which people fled to allow people to return to areas that will not be under regime control. The population fears returning towns and major cities, if they remain in regime hands, the population largely will not return to these areas. Right now we are talking about a crisis. But these people have no home to return to. In conversations with people in idlib, i have been speaking to people there for many years. Desperation and the general belief that they are about to die is very prevalent. This has an effect on the ability and willingness of april to resist. To resist what is happening and in trying to still care for their community and trying to remain resilient, and also military resistance. There is a sense about resistance is futile, but outside actors decided their fate and therefore, they might as well take up and leave is said of trying the best instead of trying to defend their towns. Pick up and leave, instead of trying to defend their towns. People whot for spend time in idlib, like dr. People who, and speak a lot to the population, there is always a sense that this is a population who even before the current displacement crisis, half of them were displaced from other areas. Those are people who refuse to live under the assad regime, who fled areas and other cities. A very strong population that endured enormous levels of kept strong. Cap people are being pushed to the edge where they can no longer take care of their community. They are now focusing on mere survival. Survival for themselves to see themselves to feed themselves and it shouldnt. This society which was very strong and resilient is breaking apart. There are still people who are trying to help others, amazing volunteers and amazing ngo workers, but there is a sense that everything is falling apart. I think the fact that such a strong population is now tearing at the seams goes to show that extent of terror to which people have been subjected to airstrikes, through mass displacement. People also know what happens to people who remain behind in the towns and are captured by the regime. The few who did so are a tiny minority. Videos and images of that emerged of people being executed, people being tortured after being captured. This is something that is creating a real sense of terror among the population. They expect that the regime will continue to advance towards them. The faith in intervention is limited. They have been unable to stop the violence in idlib since 2017. There is an honest belief that they are about to die. People and try to understand what will they do, what are they thinking of doing next, when it gets really bad, we will storm the Turkish Border, that is what some say. Which is why turkey intervened. Others say that, this is our fate and this is what will happen to us. We have accepted this and you should accept it. I call on all of us not to accept it. We are talking about a population, most of the population in idlib our children. 51 , according to data. They have done nothing to participate in the conference and to deserve the type of being put on them right now. Thank you. Thank you. Shall i . Go ahead. Used to the syrian culture, usually the man in the family or someone will put their children something. I will ask, who said we are the war in syria and it has nothing to do with us . It does. We should be using our diplomatic power to negotiate on some of measures of political participation and accountability, and the conditions for a safe return for refugees. Who said that . I will help you with it. It was not President Trump. It was not secretarygeneral antonio guterres. Angelina jolie. [laughter] oped. That in an what we are witnessing with the Syrian Crisis is the lack of leadership in the u. S. Especially, and in the u. N. In general, especially secretarygeneral antonio guterres. That is where we have an endless war and suffering in syria. In order to attract the attention of the media or policy, it has to be unprecedented. If we had only 50,000 people who were displaced in syria, nobody would say anything. It has to be 900,000 people in two months in order for the media to respond to the Syrian Crisis. A couple of days ago, they contacted me because they wanted to do an interview about idlib. Then they called and said, sorry, we have breaking news. I said, what is the breaking news . They said that the previous governor of will be released. That is more important to us. This is the big news now. We have people suffering who have no shelter. Cover these two stories. Story,e media covers a they are the policymakers. Our policymakers will Pay Attention to them. I came from idlib a couple of months ago. I have been going back and forth. I was helping with the refugee crisis. To provide health care for the refugees. Idlib isve seen in something i have not seen in any disaster. I will mention a few examples. I met with a neurosurgeon. He used to come to the u. S. Every year. He was the best neurosurgeon in syria. When the uprising started, he treated some of the victims. For those who dont understand the history of the crisis, when withprising started Peaceful Demonstrations by young people asking for political reform, the regime used several tactics to prevent what was happening. They use diapers to shoot at demonstrators. When doctors treated the victims , they were put in prison. They also targeted peaceful activists. This is predictable. What they will do. He allowed them to fester in many areas in syria. He knew that the jihadists would find other places. Used extreme measures. To end the uprising. By targeting hospitals and doctors. More than 580 hospitals were bombed in syria, mostly by the assad regime and russia. More than 900 and doctors and nurses were killed in syria while they are discharging their humanitarian duty. The neurosurgeon was part of the doctors who was treating victims. His family was wiped out by the regime. His brother was imprisoned and he was surrounded, and then when the city was controlled by the regime, then he was displaced but he continued to perform neurosurgery on the victims of war and also community for brain tumors and stroke and things like that. When the north was overrun by the regime, then he moved to idlib and ended up in one of the largest hospitals. He continues to go to the hospitals knowing that he may not return to his family alive every day. These heroes should be our heroes. Every physician and nurse and Health Care Worker in the United States of america should be aware of these heroes. They do their duty knowing that they may be killed while treating their community. When we talk about the resilience of the community in idlib, the main reason for the resilience is you have hospitals and clinics that are treating the children of the families and the community that is there. People told me in aleppo and idlib that they will take the chance of living in neighborhoods and cities that would have bombs and missiles, but when you do not have a physician that will treat your kid when they have fever, then they will leave. When we are talking about half of the population of syria displaced, half of the population, 12 Million People in syria displaced living inside and outside. The main reason is the tactic by the regime, to bomb hospitals, to destroy hospitals, to bomb schools and destroy schools and bomb markets and destroy markets. The infrastructure. That is leading to the displacement of the population and showing on social media the extreme brutality that will happen to people who are left behind. So now on social media you are seeing these videos of denigration of tombs by assad regime militia. That means he is showing the syrians, even your death will not be spared by our brutality. If you move back to these areas, you are going to have the same fate. Im going to speak also about the children of syria. This is the drawing i brought with me from idlib with children of one of the refugee camp, or displaced camps. This is a drawing that was drawn with mud because its very muddy. There was flooding in the camp and we had to wear long boots to navigate the mud. This child, she is 12 years old. She was displaced with her family seven times, seven times. In many other wars, you have one or two displacement. In syria, you have 7, 8 displacement of the families and the population going north or going to idlib, now theres no more idlib. These people do not have any other place to go. The 3 Million People in idlib are trapped. They cannot go to any other place. So if you think they can flee to lebanon or iraq, they cannot flee. It is landlocked. She told me she wants to be a doctor. Actually most of the children that i have seen in the camp, they wanted to be doctors and teachers and architects. Our government here a source of healing not only in syria but for the whole middle east. Being source of stability in chaos and extremism. If we just focus on syria, Pay Attention to it, because syria is important. Not because the iphone was invented by a Syrian American but because because of the geography of syria. Thats the revenge of geography. Because of location of syria, the countries that are around there, the fact that many may go through syria, or many things common history of syria, it is very important, one of the princeton professors that you go to princeton right now, in 1956 said syria is microscopic in size but cosmic in influence. What happens in syria is affecting as in the United States. The large refugee crisis in 2015 when i was invited to the middle east at that time, 2016, created at the refugee sentiment, the rise of hate groups, the destabilization of your it, the brexit and election of certain politicians here in the United States. So we have to care about syria because we care about us here. [applause] i kind of feel, i guess that would make sense for me to talk first, but i was going to talk a little more about the lay of the land and where we are strategically. To follow on from the very powerful human stories and perspectives is a tough one. I think weve heard a little bit from elizabeth already, over one Million People, the u. N. Says 900,000 but i think those numbers are undercounted. Over one Million People have been displaced just since december 1. Were talking were talking less than three months. Already about 850,000 people displaced in north of idlib. So the population along the northern strip of idlib along the Turkish Border is close to if not reached 2 Million People. That is a massive density of population. Idp camps are full. They were full a long time back. There are simply no tents left. People are sleeping in the fields. At least i think eight children have frozen to death in the last two weeks because they had been forced to flee and with no shelter. So when u. N. Officials and we discuss this as something unprecedented, it truly is unprecedented. The u. N. Itself admitted two days ago i think in the Security Council they vastly underestimated the scale of funding and equipment, and then doubled that financial from International Community to deal with it. Beyond that, the United Nations is stuck. There was a french proposal the last few days to issue a statement, just a statement, calling this an emergency and calling on the International Community to do what it can to cease hostilities and the russians vetoed that. Just a statement. So the prospect for meaningful u. N. Action beyond rhetorical statements is a tough one to consider right now. In new york theres great pressure on the u. N. Secretarygeneral to do something more. Hes been virtually silent on this issue because they have other concerns in syria, primarily access in the regime area of damascus and regime controlled territories. There is a security conference about a week or so ago. The theme of the conference was west looseness, which they defined as the western world having forgotten and lost touch with what it means to be an important player in the world. I think the crisis in idlib and almost total silence from the western world on the issue is a perfect calculation of what the munich security form called west looseness. There really is no urgency or even attention from our policy makers. Military on the ground, just to give you all a clear picture of where things have proceeded, in the last ten months since april last year when they really surged, roughly 35 40 of North Western opposition control syria has been captured by proregime forces. So nearly a year and about a third of the way there. Those lines have moved faster on the map over time than they did early on, and i think elizabeth makes an important point that the capacity to continue to defend and hold this military campaign is limiting as time goes by. The key regime objective was to take control of the highway which runs, if you can picture a map of syria, from aleppo all the way south to damascus. That objective is complete. The secondary objective i believe would be to capture the other highway which splits idlib in half and cuts across to the coastal heartland of the regime. We are not there yet, but the key dynamic we have to be considering right now especially in the last week or so is turkey. Turkey has had a military presence in idlib for a long while. They established what they called observation posts. They had explicit agreement with russia and the Syrian Regime in iran to establish those observation posts. There are 31 now in idlib. 13 have been completely surrounded and effectively besieged by the regime as it marched northward, so nearly half of those posts have fallen. Effectively without a fight. That raises all kinds of questions about why turkey hasnt and more until now to withstand the pressure on an issue which frankly i think is existential for president erdogan. Whether you look at his allies in parliament or his opposition in parliament, there is huge pressure to avoid a single syrian refugee entering turkey from idlib or any other area of the northern border. The prospect of 2 million refugees, displaced people sat on the border, if they were to cross, it would kill erdogans reelection chances. We saw a minor military offensive from turkish soldiers. Russia and turkey are increasingly coming to blows. They have employed tanks into idlib. Even despite all of that, we have continued to see the regime advance. I would expect the turks to push back and more serious way. The big . Is what happens then. If we are really looking at catastrophic scenarios. I have a lot more things to say. I want to apologize for showing up late. I want to speak to the point of how there is so much going on. There is a tremendous amount of a people in washington and the u. S. I think cnn has been doing a good job. This is an unprecedented crisis. You laid that out. For people who watch and have been observing on the crisis. We are used to these superlatives. These shocking figures. Can you please put this in a bit more context of why this is a unique moment . Speak a little bit to what charles mentioned. Of why it is not reaching these people. That seems so logical. People do not want to stay. They expected to be captured and executed. We all know what happens. It is extermination. Non people who have connection to any political activity. They are afraid of staying under control. They see what happens to people who stay behind. We end up having situations in which ngos come. They run out of cars. They start walking on foot. Families are forced to walk for several hours. They are so afraid of being captured alive. This is something that has not happened. We have never seen a situation like this. We are seeing so many people who are living in fields. There are many cases of needing to amputate body parts because of frostbite. Willingnesse is no on the part of the west to do anything. Even the humanitarian assistance is not sufficient. This inability to provide timely aid is something that is very fixable. If russia and the regime were to believe that there are jets that are bombing civilians and displacing them and this immense firepower that is allowing the regime to advance on the ground. They have a shot of being shut down. Russia and turkey are facing each other. The balance of power does not favor anyone. Turkey is the only force that is trying to prevent that successfully. Turkey is not allowing people to cross. You have to pay for smuggling to get across. People are stuck. They are unable to cross into turkey. People are faced with the possibility of being captured alive. Lets keep in mind that the rebel groups inside have the ability. They have tanks. They believe they will face largescale massacres. Surpriseu was cop by by this large number of displaced people. This was based on the understanding between turkey and russia. They warned the ngos more than a year ago that this may be happening. There was a report on cnn yesterday. The reason you have more than 600 camps. Most of them are makeshift camps that do not have the u. N. Camps 10th. They make it very complicated to get these tents. This was due to a lack of leadership. Turkey was not cop by surprise. Syria is not a priority. Can you speak more to that . What was the failure . When you have a crisis like you have millions of people who were affected. You would expect you ended servers observers to be there. There are none in idlib. They should be there right now. Why is he not even contemplating visiting . He had all of the resources to be there. The syrian children in the camp can distinguish the sound of a missile or bomb. They are not able to go to school. Shaminge not there russia and shaming china for not doing anything to stop the bombing . Having 6700 hospitals that have been bombed. Nothing has happened. The secretarygeneral is trying to not make this public. They care more about the reelection. Some other thing that doctors on the ground tell you. They are saying they are there to serve their community. There is a shortage of iv fluid. You would expect to have a huge shortage of medication. We think and i crisis like this, most people die from bombs. Actually, most people die from chronic diseases. There is no doctor to treat your child. That is what happens in syria. Doctors do not have salaries. Ngos have less funding right now. Deal with the heating. Is not a tropical area. It is very cold. It is very cold. We had to have multiple errors just to stay warm. People are going into extreme to keep the kids warm. In idlib you have 14 million olive trees. Oil is the best thing in the middle east. They are burning shoes. Garbage. To keep the children warm. Children are freezing to death. It is hard. Bringing heaters into the tents. Lets talk about that border. We have erdogan making real noises about a significant military incursion. Some of thebout fighting that has taken place. Thisis the risk of escalating significantly. My perception of this is it is an existential issue for erdogan. They are willing to take a nap a risk, that there is a risk of excavation. Escalation. It is about much more than idlib. Idlib is not the most pressing issue on turkeys agenda. I have been surprised by how hard russia has played this. Understanding of the situation six months ago is that we wouldve already come to a understanding. I think all of that together does risk a solution. Questionurkey has no but to escalate. They probably have nearly tripled the amount of soldiers in idlib. The scale of their deployed military weapons outweighs anything that the u. S. Has in syria. Wanted to getly serious about this, they could do it very swiftly. The assumption is that turkey might do that but would do everything to avoid a war with the russians. That calculation has clearly changed. I think we are dealing with an unprecedented situation. Highly sophisticated military equipment stuck in a complicated war zone. Against the russians, who are playing as hardnosed as the possibly could be. And the Syrian Regime who will never compromise on anything. I find it hard to believe they wont. Theyat happens, how will react . They will not want to be humiliated on the world stage. Syria has compromised nothing. How much do you think the u. S. Withdraw has exacerbated the crisis . The u. S. Does not have a great deal of influence. Understandingn that the u. S. Is weak. I think that has emboldened all of those players to play hard. Including turkey. Turkey has to maneuver a very complicated environment. The risks are incredible. I was going to ask you a question. I want to get to questions from the audience. Is there an alternative to regime control of idlib . With the International Community be willing to talk . The population are not fans of that islamic group. It is the dominant power. Now with the military losses and that it isead belief , they lost territory more of the support that they once enjoyed. They have gone and lost so much of their manpower. It is astounding. They have lost hundreds and hundreds of fighters since the start of the offensive. They are weaker. I think the only alternative is turkish right now control. Turkey has about 15,000 troops inside idlib. Turkey has no interest in starting a war. It would be vulnerable to attack. There is coordination between them. I dont think turkey is interested in launching such a conflict. Turkey has immense leverage. We should expect largescale massacres. They could significantly influence what they want to do. The groups leadership is determined to hold on. They see it as the governance of this territory. Bandit abandoned the hope of regime change. They are much more willing than previously to engage. They are definitely shifting in their conduct. They are interested in engagement. This is highly authoritarian conduct. If you can envision the least bad of all the feasible scenarios on the table, you start to see something that both of us have called the gazafication of idlib. Some kind of status quo line on the map. That is still a catastrophic thing to consider. Reason you call it the gaza scenario. I think turkey knows that. If you have seen their recent military deployments. They are trying to draw a redline on the map. To indicate that they may be willing to agree on that. Basically cutting into the half. Turkey would have no option in the interim then to accept that. It would assume the mantle of ruling that territory. My understanding of turkish policy is that they are a friend. Themselvesstablished as the only organization that is capable of using an iron fist to keep the internal dynamics more stable. Termld imagine in the long turkey would cease to use that leverage. Option on the if you want to continue to be the only ruler of northern idlib, you know what is going to happen. The russian regime is not going to except that as the longterm status quo. I dont know if we will get there. Scenarios ieasible can imagine, that is the least bad one that is on the table. It is an interesting component as they have seen this coming. They have been engaged in a pr effort. They will have to accept the scenario as better. Whether that will work as a whole other question. It is all part of the strategy. I think it exists for a reason. Can you try to answer that question . Is this a model that will work . No. They do not like it. They want to divide syria into different regions. Many syrians still think that syria is one country. You should have political transitions. Transitional justice that will allow the return of the refugees. Without that, we will continue to suffer. In 2013, i had a meeting with president obama in the white house. I gave him a letter on the behalf of the syrianamerican doctors. Would him is his legacy be determined by what happens in syria. Legacyhed and said his would be determined by other things. Betill think his legacy will determined by what happens in syria. Among the Democratic Candidates, there is no question about syria. It is important. Cnn and other Media Outlets should be asking this question. The only candidate who tweeted about idlib was Pete Buttigieg. How come the whole world is suffering with this . In the Democratic Candidates for president are not discussing it . I completely agree. It is really important to understand that the alternative is mass slaughter. That is why this is a better alternative. If mass slaughter is allowed to happen under trumps watch, this will define his legacy. Legacy is tarred by what he had not done in syria. Officials say it was a mistake. Withaw a line in the sand chemical weapons. And let the massacre occur. And not react in any way. Wrong. Y, we were people in Trumps Administration do not want to be reflecting back in four years saying, we should have done something. Mass slaughter happened on our watch. We knew it was coming. It was evident that this was idlibs future and we did nothing to stop it. We issued statements. We did not mobilize. We did not halt this when we had the opportunity to do so. Why is it important that the regime complete this takeover . That is this one island outside regime control. How important is it for assad to take that back . In logical terms, it is not all that important. From his point of view in principal terms, it is the most important thing that exist today. He is principal is as the sovereign president of syria, i have the right to retake my territory. Everything he has done over the is toime nine years realize that vision. Whatnk that is precisely we are seeing. No worlds to flee to now. Whether itslace southern syria, they have always been an out. There was always somewhere else people could flee to and now its a lockdown border with turkey and thats why this is so unprecedented. Another ownerng the conversation from a sort of Strategic Perspective the regime is stored nearly stretched. Militarily they have taken huge casualties in the last two or three months well over the fighters just in italy. Including a high number of Senior Officers which has more of an impact than losing foot soldiers alone. There is a question in my mind as to how long the regime can sustain those losses, sustain the intensity of the campaign they have been conducting, putting aside all this other diplomatic equation. Even more broadly than that and putting aside the military dynamic, they have the manpower the last year and a half to play any kind of resorting to southern syria. Southern syria when it was reconciled was meant to be the perfect example of reconciliation syria from a russian perspective. In the 18 months since, the regime has been incapable, not unwilling, incapable of restoring any services in the south. They are crowdsourcing on the internet for funds to rebuild electricity in town. The russians have been only capable of deploying 100 military police through all of southern syria to keep law and order and whats the result . Insurgency at a different level. Clear sign southern syria is on a path towards new instability in the next year or two and all because the regime simply doesnt have the capacity to rule over the territories or control the territories its taking. To spend all these resources for a tiny percent of the map in a isuation or a great expense also strategically stupid. But again it tells you a lot about the regime mentality, it does not give you give us you know what. It does not matter. The principle is all that matters. Reasserting control on the map and telling the world im the president of syria and there is nothing you can do about that. Thats whats driving this. About the thinking of the regime and being an older classmate i have some way of understanding and thinking, especially early in the crisis. He is a doctor that justifies killing. Millions thatare need to be cleansed. When we are talking about 6. 5 million refugees displaced in syria, in his mind these are ,eople who need to be cleansed these areas need to be depopulated. , the peopleareas who were were not allowed to go back. So this is strategic and tactical, i think that was done and putulate the area as antagonistic to the regime. Even before bashar alassad. Now he has taken his revenge. He got an area that was filled with disease. Thats how he justifies things just a couple of days ago he had a speech that he declared recoveredcause he territory. Continuek this will unfortunately unless he is pressured to accept present terms. One of the major debates certainly among western countries is what to do with foreign fighters and that really came up when the first turkish incursion happened in eastern syria. The foreign fighters in the isis prisons being held. I want to get another audience question. Broadly speaking what it comes foreign jihadist fighters come what do you propose for the thousands of them who are fighting inlets a broadly in the northern part of syria . Toi think its important distinguish it in the northeast and northwest. In northeast they are in prison and there are relatives who are ining in camps, most of them the countries have responsibility to repatriate these individuals. The overwhelming majority are children. , there is a proposal by the Kurdish Administration to put them on trial in the northeast and serve other sentence in the west. Solutionly tricky because european countries, many of them dont have a law that would allow them to put them behind bars for a long time because there is no evidence of other crimes. With regards to the situation in the northwest, there are foreign fighters there. A large contingent are uighur muslim from china. We know what happens to uighur muslims so repatriating them there means basically stop executions. Foreigners still operating in lib is quite small because basically we saw the major split that occurs within isisslamic state, basically saw most foreigners , largely being syria. There are some fighters there, y have not participated or any foreign attacks on soil. A small number who apparently have who are perceived to be a threat by the United States have been assassinated with hellfire missiles. The way to go. People who pose a threat can be assassinated inside it lib. But overall the foreign fighters were there, their numbers are small and decreasing rapidly because these units, these factions, critically the hardline jihadist faction, in their immense ranks. Entirely by russian airstrike. The presence in the northwest is quite limited. They are focusing on fighting aside. Hitting some thing else. The u. S. Comes in and drones them. , thatng they will just seems to be the solution and way to go. Maybe even thousands but in the low thousands distractors in the fact there 3 million civilians there. They cannot pay the price for having these nut jobs come into their area by getting bombed and displaced from their home. I want to mention something about these type of questions. They are very important but when the media focus on these issues and the fact you have hundreds of terrorists in some areas and basically people justify in their minds intentionally or unintentionally to let the other 3 million and a half exterminated, its an unconscious thing because her main thing now the united dates in the west is the war against terror. The focus about the view and forget 3. 5 million and thats what people think. Ive been in places in the world we have a presence from the United Nations, we look at this logically and defend human rights these people but we do not treat syria the same for some region for some reason. As do the assad regime and russians. Absolutely. At that time i had an american he was eppo he looked at the pictures and said these are isis. In their mind, everyone in it lib or aleppo is isis. That. Ont see so thats the source of information. If i may reiterate. For yesterday the spokesman the Operation Inherent resolve, the u. S. Led coalition to fight isis did an interview with sky news in which he parroted literally the assad regimes talking points which is precisely what he was told. He was asked by the interviewer whats going on in it lib and why is it important. His answer was it lib is controlled by terrorists come what we are seeing right now is mass civilian slaughter in terrorist controlled it lib. So long as those terrorists control it lib we will continue to see human suffering. That is the perfect to cap relation encapsulation of how to get 3. 5 Million People and think of only three or 400 who are the problem thats very easy to deal with. You are not really hearing the same from james jeffreys. You are not in there is clearly a division. But the fact the spokesman who really ought to be coached beforehand and how to deal with and interviewing it lib said something that you literally couldve copied and pasted then put in syrian state media. The u. S. Military spokesman has effectively justified the continued campaign in it lib. The contexts to be of the broader understanding. , my got tells me to always look at the really bad guys. But having followed syria for nine years i know very full well that the situations are far more complicated and the priorities are totally different and conducting a Campaign Like this actually ironically will probably strengthen extremist ideology bring it will give a new blood, a new breathing force for the extremist ideology that is always said the world will give up on you. We are your only protectors. The west does not care about your lives. And eventually this kind of eventuality will happen. And so to speak in that way and then see this carryon is as bad as we could be. They are currently focusing on governing. A situation which the regime in russia break to the area and take over it. Some of them will survive and will transform from an entity that is in charge of governing a territory in quite an authoritarian and problematic matter but yes governing a territory, fixing roads, providing needs for people. They will now have none of those spots ability, what we are seeing with the insurgency, so even from a counterterrorism perspective this kind of incursion into an area that is controlled by an actor which is increasingly working to be left alone. Had a few operations beyond the line and it was oftentimes a response to regime attack. If they are left alone they will not launch attacks wheres going in and destroying everything will just distribute them across syria and also possibly to turkey, etc. Prayed this operation does not make much sense. I think we need to start wrapping up. We can go for another five or 10 minutes. Excellent. I wanted to followup on the u. S. Perspective because we are in washington. Bouncing of what you were saying about Pete Buttigieg being the only one talking about this at the nbc debate Foreign Policy was not something raised at all little in syria specifically. Is the formers ambassador whose the special representative for syria. What influence you think he has allowed poisonous ministration allowed voice in this administration breaking through the highest levels. Respect foreat ambassador jeffrey. He has put more energy into this role than any of his predecessors have in the last five years. A clear determination to continue to uphold the principles of the u. S. Embraced in the Syrian Crisis. But he has he has one big challenge. Which is the president of the United States doesnt really have a Foreign Policy. And he doesnt really know syria exists unless he might potentially see it on fox. And so what weve seen primarily since ambassador jeffrey took on his role is that he is done things pretty is on the right things, is put energy into u. S. Policy in syria in two or three times the president has pulled the rug from under his feet, destroyed all the progress he made in terms of sanctions or whatever and then jim has had to start again. Ambassador jeffrey traveled to ankara 10 days ago with the support of secondary pompeo, he did i think in my view the right natos which was to lend rhetorical support to turkey, to encourage turkey to assert itself more strongly, to say you have our support and is nato and that night and this is the most telling thing, the National Security advisor went on tv and essentially said the United States isnt going to do anything about it. We dont have any resources to do that, its not our business. And pull the rug from under his feet as he was still in ankara trying to negotiate with the turks to encourage them to be more to mourn it lib. That continues to be the problem. Obama and his ministration a huge fault but there was a process. They took the wrong judgments but there was a process. In this administration there is no process, there is no structure. The state apartment has a very good team who works on syria knows the issue back to front but they do not have backing of the white house. Shame becausereal it has setback what could have been some progress over and over again. And gnome at which a complete agree with, even though i disagree with many aspects if theres a policy of present trump on syria, especially when it happens to closing a border to the Syrian Refugees which i believe is shameful that we tolerate it. We only had a few resettle in syria compared to 2015 or 2016. And this is something we really have to reflect on as a country. Thats why there is thats why i i immigrated to the United States years ago. Because of our values and principles that we should not be different whether we have President Trump or president obama. Did a fewident trump things in syria that were right and i think he was supported by the public in the United States whether their democrat or republican. When he put a redline on the use weapons, that was something people supported. When he spoke about the syrian children and said these are , syrianl children children right now are freezing to death and there might be a disconnect between the state department who believe is trying , but for same thing those who have the years of President Trump show him the pictures of syrian children freezing to death and tell him do something to prove you have the upper hand in syria, not news burden cnn broke the about russia trying to interfere with our election in 2020. He disagrees public on the issue. The entry of present boot to the world. Make canump can prove to the world he has the upper hand, not putin. Were just talking about the dynamics mood note yesterday the top middle east official on the National Security council was removed and moved over to do energy so right now there is no senior director for the middle east in the white house. Why dont we finish up where we started and that is on the humanitarian crisis. I could ask each of you, if there is a singular thing that the u. S. And or the International Community can do to alleviate the suffering of what is now one Million People whove been displaced and raymore within the process who live there. What would it be. We can talk about money, money helps. I think president obama used to pledge millions of dollars every areand then because we perceived as the leader on certain things including humanitarian assistance whether it syria or yemen or other places. President trump implied supporting the people who are displaced in syria and other countries in the region that he is friends with saudi arabia and kuwait and United Arab Emirates they can follow his lead and he can influence them to follow his lead. Whats more important than this which i think is our moral mandate is to care about syrians not because they are special, but because they are like us and they care like us in the dream like us. They wanted to be doctors, they wanted to be architects and we can give them the chance to be doctors and architects in syria if we care about them like we care about our children. Think as he said, the money is needed and will help calm but the Current Situation is untenable. It is becoming a holding pen for people who are finance their smuggling into turkey, to smuggle themselves into turkey, or they are too scared to go under assad regime control and thats the overwhelming majority of the population. That is present in it liberate now that is present there right now. This is a situation that cannot continue to exist. Basically a situation of gaza but way worse enters the implications of it. So the First Priority should be ceasefire. It is more important than money. So the people are able to return to their homes, living in a temp longterm is not a solution and their people who have been tents there intents in since 2013. At the very least the current line of the conference, we need to restabilize the ceasefire to the u. S. Has the ability threaten the regime in russia that they continue carrying out strikes. I believe in such a scenario it does not require boots on the ground or any type of significant invention. A ceasefire will turkey will have the leverage to get troops on the ground to impose a ceasefire at least along the line and allow people to return to their homes. There are towns that are not in regime control. All these towns are empty because the population expects the regime from them so they dont want to give them the opportunity to kill them in their homes so they fled already. With a ceasefire they will be able to return and live and work their fields and sustain themselves without having to defend depend on international aid. We need a solution that would allow people to return to their homes. Mentioned the northern these children from the north. This area is under regime control. People do not feel safe to return. The regime either needs to change or change his behavior in a way that allows the millions not from the area and also people who are refugees and live outside to be able to return and live in safety. Thus far weve seen year after on syrianve snowfall refugee camps in lebanon. Tents live intent in r after year because because they know what awaits them. This needs to change so people just onemove on point about focusing on syria, we always plan our policymakers but we forget we are a society of organization and civic organizations and congregations that, that really did not Pay Attention to syria will be dealt with bosnia or darr for or rwanda or south africa or others like this. We have to reflect on this issue. There were years ago an article saying why syria needs an earthquake and they said all the suffering in syria in one week after the earthquake in haiti, they receive more donations than the years the Syrian Crisis. Whether they are evangelical or catholic or muslim, today we had a press conference with a few muslim organizations the talked of the Syrian Crisis for the first time in the last seven years. ,ongress has a responsibility represent of her she did sleep tweeted president richey aibresentative rashida tl tweeted about it. It represented from wisconsin went to the senate floor and spoke about genocide. For 11 years. Has 3250 speeches about it. Someone in the congress can do that. They also have a collective responsibility to push President Trump to do something about syria. People anduntry of whats happening and some of the apathy toward syria is a reflection of the apathy in the United States whether their faith leaders, congregation, media, Civic Society or so forth. We have to change that. Knowll be quick because we we are tight on time. I agree with all of them. I think one thing, the United States under trump, more so than under obama has run a red light in the sand in terms of the used chemical weapons. If you think about that, weve essentially made a statement that if any chemical weapon is used and even if it kills one person, just one person, we will conduct military strikes or some form of action and then you compare it to a scale of whats happening, it makes her policy look utterly absurd. And i think the u. S. Needs to get its moral compass right and its perspective on what we actually care about and why and get out of this i think convenient political equation whereby very rare use of chemical weapons is the only thing that will make us care or act in syria. Beyond that i think we need to get over this idea but we only care about things that happened inside our homelands, its the only thing that matters. Forever war is neverending. Lets bring other con combat troops on bird the trend is we dont care about the rest of the world. Because theres nothing good where we can do. Quite frankly thats not true. We are not talking about sending 300,000 troops into syria for regime change. We are talking about for example using the fact the United States is the most powerful country in the world by a country mile to generate a Diplomatic Coalition that puts unprecedented pressure on the russians within the u. S. To stop to be war crimes on an hourly basis. At minimum just use diplomacy. , only thadyond that earthquake tsunami or natural disaster, the world floods in a humanitarian crisis response. The world mobilizes in a way we rarely ever see another conditions. Wise in the world doing that right now. We dont have to all just go but the united. , states and a coalition of the willing goodby flying supplies into turkey and trucking them over a church control border but we are not. Why do we do it for earthquake or tsunami but we dont with one million or 2 Million People stuck in tent in tents in the middle of winter. Hopefully we will see some action soon on all of this. Thank you so much, thank you all for coming. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] when the senate gavels and monday at 3 00 p. M. Eastern, wisconsin senator Timmy Baldwin delivers the reading of washingtons farewell address. Later in the week the senate takes procedural votes on two antiabortion measures. The houses back for allegedly to work tuesday with their first votes expected on wednesday. That in the week, a bill would ban all flavored tobacco products, watch live coverage of the house on cspan and the senate on cspan2. Former Pacific Commander and retired admiral talks about chinas military power and influence before the u. S. China economic and security review commission