Voices from the road. So to keep our moderator busy so in the interest of time and because we aree on air with cspan we should get moving. I will give some opening remarks and then we will start the discussion. Welcome to the middle east institute. For someone who works on syria over the last nine years i can safely say to combat a more important time any other offense like this one and i was extremely glad it was taking place. The humanitarian crisis that developed recently is unprecedented. Not just of the whole world of modern history. But the world has yet to do then issue more than public statements of concern. And then to say everything that i can but to say from the outset how grateful i am to have such an esteemed panel of experts and practitioners to see this very shortly with this valuable perspective to have the extraordinarily important issue. First on the far left the founder and president of a medical company trying to reduce healthcare disparity by providing healthcare for free ndto refugees. Just returning from a medical mission where he visits the humanitarian partners recently meeting with people in camps and and share these experiences last few weeks with the un secretarygeneral office and team Member States as former president of the Syrian American medical society, the cofounder of the Syria Faith Initiative and awarded the chicagoan of the year for his medical h work a fellow in the middlew east program a doctoral student and a prolific writer on all things syria. Her research is primarily based on contacts and cultivated across the region also a Research Fellow for the think tank based in jerusalem as the consultant to the International Crisis and the European Institute of peace with a decade of experience to defend the rights of refugees palestinians ethnic and religious minorities so as an awardwinning National Correspondent from the Washington Bureau focusing on National Security issues i spent most of the pastrt decade as a Foreign Correspondent to abc news. s spending considerable time on the frontlines for the uprising in the middle east and reporting on the refugee crisis and among the first correspondent and cairo on the regime and rebel side and also to travel across ukraine. So on behalf of the institute welcome to all three of you. I am looking forward to this that will follow. The last thing i will say we will all be taking questions for the panel from all of you in the audience and to go to that website into the code 622500 you can submit your own questions and then throughout the panel as well so essentially to allow the moderator to keep them engaged discussion throughout the home event generation just say that it is relatively straightforward to stop the violence you can vote yes or no to see the results change as we go in second and hope it will come up. There will be a second one with more answers to the question which will probably give us a more interesting and complex resultss so on that note i will go take my place in the panel and we will start with elizabeth first. Thank you so much so turning into a civil war that this is a humanitarian crisis. So i want to draw our attention to the fact and those Iranian Forces over 1 Million People displaced those individuals cannot be sent home so we are talking about the crisis but essentially the population of he3 Million People they are no longer living in their homes and they are relative to others and this situation to secure that area to allow that to return and then we talk about the crisis. And in conversations the level of desperation of then having the effects to resist what is happening trying to still care for the community. There is the sense so that they will pick up and leave. And with those Regime Forces. So people that speak to the population the population for those that had the regime to those areas is a very strong population and with tuinstitutions with mutual support. People are being pushed to the edge no longer taking care of their community for survival that humanitarian crisis was very very strong and resilient and then trying to help others. And the sense with the fact that such a strong population that goes to where they have been subjected is also to those that remain behind and captured by the regime. But those videos and images that are emerging and people being tortured after being captured they expect the regime will advance. They have been unable to stop the violence there. And they believe they are about to die so talking to people and try to understand what they will do when it gets bad but others just say this is the faith and this is what happens to us. And this is not population and then have been nothing to participate. Thank you. If you are used to but if we are watching that has little to do with us so on a ceasefire and with that acquisition. And President Trump but what you are witnessing and that is where we have an inlet into syria and to grab that attention there are only 50000 people displaced in syria. And in order for that immediatee response couple days ago they said sorry it is breaking news for going of it will be released. So to have one corrupt governor and this is breaking news now for the 900,000 people who have no shelter and some are freezing to death and now we cover these two stories. The media is important because of the policymaker. Because 900,000 humans in italy they should Pay Attention to them. But theil policymakers will Pay Attention to them. Except for short windows and i have been going back and forth in syria and then in puerto rico and the my grantor refugee crisis. And then im not saying that because of hysteria but i will mention a few examples of people and then to remove him but not just come to the United States every year they will have light lights. When the lawn appraising starts. Si im sure the deer crisis but then to be asking for political reform. The regime is to prevent what happened in europe. And then to be sure at the demonstrators. I went but the the detail activist and they also raise to the hardest one a jihadist to basically they dont know what they will do. And then to carry on and close that uprising from sectarian and so forth. And why they are targeting the opposition in many other areas and then with isis and others, and also so to end this appraising but to help out that regime in russia but the doctors that were killed in syria. So those who weree raring it that then he was displaced and then with those amenities and things like that. How o much but then that he may not return his family life every day. This hill should be our fill in every. So when we joke about and then to read the children of the families. But we need a left hand. That the main reason is with the iranians and the russians to bother market and destroy the market that is the infrastructure and also showing on social media the extreme mortality that will happen to people. So now we are seeing videos so with that regime militia so anything word not be spared by the brutalities. So i will speak also with the children in this was withdrawn and we have to wear long boots to navigate. And is 12 years old. And then to have one or two displacements. And those from any other place so from europe to turkey or lebanony or iraq and now shrinking over and over. And then to help them and then to be a source of instability and chaos because it was invented and with that geography that allows syria to go to syria it is very important syria is microscopic with the large refugee crisis through 2016 and those that died of populism and with that euro and the politicians. I guess it would make sense that i was going to talk more and with a very powerful human stories is a tough one so hearing from elizabeth already theres over 1 Million People. That the census started at the end of april. But those that are being displaced for less than three minutes. Bo so that population there is a massive identity of population and they are sleeping in the field at least eight children frozen to death in the last two weeks. So when we talk about this being unprecedented, it truly is and in the Security Council with those facilities they need to deal with the crisis and they double that from the financial community. Beyond that and then to issue a statement calling at and of urgency and the International Community to cease hostilities. Is just a statement with the those rhetorical statements with a great pressure of the secretarygeneral to do something more on this issue because there are other tconcerns like access to namascus with those regime controlled territories. So the security conference was a week ago the theme was restlessness that we did want redefine what doctors have done to lose touch to be a meaningful player in the world. The almost total silence from the western world on the issue is a what they call restlessness there was no urgency from the policymakers. Just to give a clear picture were things have proceeded come in the last ten months since april of last year with those North Western opposition control for those pro Regime Forces to get one third of the way there and then elizabeth makes an important point to withhold this military campaign and that objective is to take control all the way south to damascus that objective is complete the secondary objective is to capture which goes into the coastal heartland of the regime the key dynamic to consider right now in the last week is turkey. Tear turkey has had a military presence for a long while with observation post with the explicit agreement with russia to establish those observation posts and now they have been completely surrounded as the regime has hmarched northward so now effectively it has fallen without a fight and why turkey hasnt done more until now to expand the pressure on an issue which frankly i think is y texistential for air do want o has allies there is no pressure for any syrian refugee to enter turkey the prospect of 2 million to put them back on the border that it will kill his election chances permanently. The weather to be humiliated the rest is Northern Syria as that begins to erode. We saw military offenses by turkish soldiers for the first time yesterday morning but they were pushed back by russian airstrikes. That brings and another element, which is russia and turkey increasingly coming together. The Turkish Military has fired shoulder launched missiles, and russian jets in the last 24 hours. No insignificant development. They have provided their opposition proxy, not by jihadist groups but opposition groups with far more advanced weapon systems on the vehicles may have done in this area of the country at any time over the last nine years. They deployed ten, vehicles, multiple rocket launch systems, a highly sophisticated laconic interference system, which was theoretically target russian and syria just as some time. Yet, even despite all that, we continue to see the regime admits. My question is really, what is . They have issued a deadline for the regime to withdraw, clearly not going to do that. I would expect them to push back in a much more serious way by the end of the month. What happens then . How significant is it . They are really looking at catastrophic scenarios with continued regime all the way through the northern border. I will end there because we should get into the discussion. I want to apologize for showing up late. I covered the Intelligence Community for cnn, its been a bit of a turn over, shall we say the highest level and i say that not just to explain why im late but also to speak to how theres so much going on in this country and in the news thats drowning out going on in syria. Thats not an excuse but there is a tremendous amount of upheaval in washington and the u. S. Cnn has done a good job on covering the crisis. The fact is, this is an unprecedented crisis that isnt getting nearly enough attention. Elizabeth, you laid that out very clearly, i think for people who watch and have been observing and we are used to these superlatives. We are used to chucking figures and horrific stories and photos. So, if you wouldnt mind, if you could please put this in a bit more context of why this is a unique moment and speak a little bit to the bottleneck of why it isnt reading these people, it just seems so logical and yet, even things like rhetorical statements. We are talking about this crisis, and they are completely unprepared. Basically, when i spoke to friends who work on that side, the first 100,000, we can handle. The second we can handle. But then they are just gone. We saw communities, the population is able to afford the border and they, the population is extremely poor. They are unable to take on this crisis so we have situations in which the regime is advancing rapidly and people dont stay because they expect to be captured and executed. Thank you have whats happening as he entered. People want to flee, there is no connection to any political activity, the syrian government, we continue to ceasefire from damascus and yet they are afraid of being under the control of the regime. They see it happening to people there. So if the population wants to flee but they cannot afford to flee so they have situations where they come into convoys. Then they run out of buses for peoplesoft people start working on foot and fling, we are talking about a war in the previous century, with no vehicles around and they go for seven or eight hours and seek shelter there because they are so afraid of being captured alive. So this is something that we have never seen a situation in which a person cannot even find a tent. It does not offer protection from the cold, they are just protected from the rain. People are just living in fields. We are seeing more, im talking to doctors, cases where you have to amputate body parts. This is something, even if theres no willingness on the left to do anything to create ceasefire to prevent these people from eventually being captured by the regime or being forced to flee to turkey, breaking the border and fling to turkey, these children, this inability to provide that is definitely something and also the political question of why these people are fleeing and preventing this continuing rig right, it is fixable. Russia the regime, they believe they are bombing civilians and displacing them. This power thats allowing them to do that. They have a lot of people that duke shutdown. They are facing each other and regardless of power, but turkey should not be standing around in this situation. Getting those policies but at the end of the day, theyre the only force trying to prevent unsuccessfully, regimes from continuing to advance and displacing more and more people start the border. Turkey is not allowing people to cross, they have to smuggle to get across. People are stuck, they are unable to cross to turkey. It continues to advance and bridges close to the border. Theres a possibility of being shocked by Border Police and being captured by the regime. Theres a population for that. They have the capability to take them down if they are desperate enough, they believe they now face large scale mascara. This is what is triggering back. Elizabeth mentioned the un. For at least one year end a ha half, this will be happening. Also the understanding between turkey and coordinate from turkey and syria and one year end a half ago that this may be happening you have to deal with 1. 5 Million People being displaced. The un that this will happen and caught by surprise, they only have one billing dollars for emergency fund. Even then, yesterday and the day before, these irregular coordination scares, even then, you have more than 600 nations, you have 1250, then they have 1260 citizens. Some have 5000. Most of them have the human because the un made it very difficult and complicated to get back from syria. They make it very complicated. So the human has not provided the leadership what is happening. The main reason is because of this. Turn your microphone on. Can you speak more to that . What was the failure on, at least when it comes to the United Nations responding on back . You have a crisis like this, like whats happening in syria over the past nine years, yet many people who are affected when doing human beings who are eight times. The catastrophe in the 21st century and actually the 20th century in the war. So libya and what they are contemplating visiting, he has them on the border, they distinguish the sound of bombs or missiles or the sound of shriveling from they are not able because of that. Why is he not there . Why are they not in russia or china . We been having 67 hospitals being bombed by the russia regime and nothing has happened. They are trying to keep these investigations secret but they can make it public because hes not one in the crisis we are going to. Tell us about the doctors on the ground. They are telling me back there and this is their duty, but theres a shortage. The displacement and the regime, this is the way that you have it. He would expect them to have litigations for the diseases and copd and chronic communities. By the way, we seen that in crisis like this, people would have Infectious Diseases but there are chronic diseases. They are pleading but cannot go to the hospital because there are no doctors to treat your child with the flu and thats what happened in syria. Now we have shortage of those. They are supported by ngo. They have funding and they have to deal with that shortage. They have to deal with all of that. It child there, it difficult keeping that. You have 14 million on the streets. They are burning shoes and garbage to keep their children warm. In spite of that, you have the tense and what the un provided. They have heaters in the tent . Lets talk about that border with turkey, which turkey shut down several years ago. They already have three and a half million refugees in the country, they clearly felt like that was enough and at the same time, we have iran faking real voices about the possibility of a significant military and turkey already inside syria. You talk about some of those, what are, what is the risk of this escal