In the interest of time and because we are on air at cspan, we should get moving. Ill be giving opening remarks. Well get started on some of our opening remarks, and then swiftly alex will be here and well start the moderator discussion. First of all, as i say, welcome to the middle east institute. Thank you ever so much for joining us for this extremely important event. As someone whos work on syria and particularly on idlib nan stop for the last nine years, i can safely say that events like this kopt come as 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 taking place. The humanitarian crisis thats 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 yet to do much more than issue public statements of concern. Im going to keep my opening remarks pretty brief because if i get carried away ill end up saying everything i plan to say on the panel. But the one thing i do want to say from the outset is how grateful i am to have such an esteemed panel of experts and practicers. All of whom will lend and youll see this shortly an invaluable perspective to understanding what remains a complex but extraordinarily important issue. First on our far left, we have dr. Zara zaw looul whos the founder of med global, a medical ngo that provides Free Health Care to to refugees. Dr. Zaw looul has just returned from a kmel mission where he visited humanitarian partners, met with recently displaced people in idp camps and treated patients in the largest hospitals Still Standing in idlib. He shared these experiences and details of the ongoing crisis with the u. N. Secretary Generals Office and member states. Dr. Zalul is also a president of the american medical society, sams, the cofounder of the syrian relief and the faith initiative. He was awarded the chicagoan of the year in 2016 for his medical work in besieged aleppo. Elizabeth sircof is at the Foreign Policy research institute, a doctororal student at princeton, and a prolific writer on syria. Her research is based on a Large Network of contacts across syria as well as field work. Shes also a Research Fellow at the forum for regional thinking, a progressive think tank in jerusalem. Shes worked as a consultant for many places. She has a decade of experience working with human rights organizations in the middle east, defending the rights of refugees, migrants, laborers, palestinians and ethnic and religious minorities. Alex marquardt is an Award WinningNational Correspondent based in washington focusing on National Security issues. He spent most of the past decade as a correspondent for abc news based in moscow, beirut and london. He spent time on the front lines in wars. He reported on the refugee and migrant crisis, covered the wave of terror attacks by isis. Among the first in cairo as the revolution exploded, and made many trips into the war to make reports. He was on the ground in gazza during the wars with israel and traveled across ukraine as the Russian Military invaded. On behalf of us, welcome to all two or soon to be three of you. Really looking forward to this important discussion that will follow. The last thing ill say is one final note before we do hand over. I want to let you know were all going to be taking questions and questions for the panelists, and polling questions from all of you in the audience, and from Live Television viewers via the intactive cite menti. Com. I believe the information is on the screen here. If you go to that website on your smartphones or any Electronic Device and enter the code 622500, youll be able to submit your own questions throughout the event, answer two polls which ill go through in a second at any time during the panel, and you can see and up vote other peoples questions all throughout the panel as well. This will essentially allow our moderator to keep a engaged discussion going with all of your input throughout the whole event. And i should just add the first poll here is a relatively strayed fort one. Should the u. S. Try to play a role in stopping the viernolencn idlib . You can vote yes or no. Youll see the results change as we go. And the second one, which im hoping will come up because i dont have it in front of me, will come up in a minute and will be similarly straightforward. There will be a second one with more answers to the question, which will probably give us a little bit more of an interesting and more complex response. So on that note, i will go and sit and take my place on the panel. Alex i see has arrived. Hell be here shortly. We will start going perhaps with elizabeth first. Perhaps ill follow on, and dr. Sarlul will conclude. So thank you so much for coming here and as charles said, this is really a crucial moment in the history of the syrian uprising that turned into a civil war, and i think when we reflect back on this time also in the history of the 21st century. This is essentially a humanitarian crisis of extreme proportions, and it actually has the significant potential to get worse. So i wanted to draw our attention to the fact that first of all we are talking about a massive displacement crisis, so since the start of the offensive by the regime in russia and later on Iranian Forces joined in as well, were talking about over 1 Million People displaced from their homes towards the border with turkey. Those individuals cannot return to their homes. Unless a cease fire is put in place, these people will not be able to return. We are talking about the start of a protracted displacement crisis, or more correctly the acsellration of a displacement crisis with essentially most of the population. In idlib were talking about a population of 3 Million People. Most of them are now displaced. Theyre living along this stretch aland along the border with turkey in tents, if they are lucky, in apartments that they rent if they are welloff relative i to others. And just outside in the cold under trees. If they cannot even find a tent. And this situation will not improve unless steps are taken to ensure the areas from which people fled to allow people to return, to areas that will not be under areas of control because the population fears living under the regime. The towns, if they remain in regime hands, population will largely not return to these areas. They do not feel safe to return. Therefore were talking about right now were talking about a crisis. But these people have no homes basically to return to. And in conversations with people in idlib, ive been speaking to people there for many years. The level of desperation and the genuine belief that they are about to die en masse is very prevalent. This of course has an effect on the ability and willingness of people to resist what is happening, to resist both in trying to still care for their communi community, and trying to remain resilient, and also military resistance. This is a sense that this is futile. That outside actors basically decided their fate. And therefore that they might as well pick up and leave instead of trying to defend their towns. And this is why were seeing mass flight even of ablebodied men towards displacement camps. And this is what is contributing to the Rapid Advances of Regime Forces. I think that for people who spent time in idlib as dr. Sa lul has and people who speak a lot to the population at idlib, theres also a sense that this population is particularly resilient. This is a population whose even before the current displacement crisis, half of it were displaced from other areas. They refused to live under the assad regime, fled from other areas, very, very strong population that endured enormous levels of violence and kept strong with institutions, with mutual support. This is now really breaking apart. People are being pushed to the edge where they can no longer take care of their community. They are now focusing on mere survival, on survival for themselves to feed themselves and their children. The humanitarian crisis is of such proportions that this society that was very, very strong and resilient is now breaking apart. There are still people who are trying to help others. There are amazing volunteers, amazing ngo workers. But there is the sense that everything is just falling apart. And i think that the fact that such a strong population is now tearing at the seams just goes to show the extent of terror to which people have been subjected, thru air strikes, mass displacement. People also know what happens to people who remain behind in the towns that were captured, the few who did so, a tiny tiny minority, videos have emerged of people being executed, of people being tortured after being captured. And this is something that is creating a real sense of terror among the population. That expect that the regime will continue to advance towards them. The fact faith in the turkish intervention is very limited. They intervened in idlib back in 2017 and has been unable to stop the violence. There is an honest belief that they are about to die. When i talk to people and i try to understand, what will they do . What will they what are they thinking of doing next . Something, you know, when it gets really bad, we will storm the Turkish Border, which is the main turkish concern, why turkey intervened. Others are saying, this is our fate and that will what will happen to us, and weve accepted it and you should. Im calling on all of us not to accept it. This is not were talking about a population, most of the population in idlib are children. 51 according to u. N. Data. Many women live there. Men who have done nothing to participate in the conflict and to deserve the type of horrors that are being inflerkted on them right now. Thank you. Thank you, elizabeth. Go ahead. Okay. So im going to start with the syrian thing, which is a quiz. So if youre used to the syrian culture, you believe that the man in the family or someone will quiz their children about something. Im going to quiz you. Who said we are watching the brutal end game of a war in syria as if it has little to do with us, but it does . We should be using our diplomatic power to insist on a cease and negotiate peace, instead based on at least some measures of political participation, accountability and the conditions for the safe return of refugees. Who said that . I will help you. It is not President Trump. It is not secretary general antonio gutierrez. Angelina jolie wrote this yesterday in an oped. What weve seeing is lack of leadership, in the u. S. Especially and in the u. N. General especially with General Gutierrez and that is why we have an endless nine years of war and suffering in syria. And in order to attract the attention of the media or policymakers it has to be unprecedented. If we only have 50,000 people displaced in syria, nobody would say something. It has to be 90,000 people in two months for people to respond to the Syrian Crisis. A couple of days ago cnn contacted to me to have an interview about idlib and then they said, sorry, we have breaking news. I said what is this breaking news . They said that previous governor of illinois blagojevich will released and this is more important for us. So i was thinking that you one corrupt governor who is in prison and being released and this is the big news now compared to 900,000 people who have who are suffering in idlib who have no shelter, some of them are freezing to death and the media could not cover these two stories. And why is the media important . Because when the madia cover a story it applies pressure on the poli policymakers and decide 900,000 humans in idlibs should be perceived as human like us and our policymakers should Pay Attention to them and then the policymakers will Pay Attention to them. And this is not happening in the past nine years except for short windows of opportunity. I came from idlib a couple of months ago. Im a physician in chicago. Im a care specialist. So ive been going back and forth in syria in the last few years and ive bin in aleppo and including yemen, gaza, bangladesh and the hurricane in puerto rico, in columbia to help with immigrant crisis or refugee crisis. My organization mid global provide health care to the refugees displaced and the victims of foreign disasters. But what ive seen in idlib is something that i havent seen in any other disaster region. Im not saying that because im originally from syria, but sa a ssa but saz a humanitarian and a doctor. And speaking to the resilience busine elizabeth has been talking about. And a doctor who used to come to the every year for courses and then applied the skills that he learned back in syria. Weighs the best neurosurgeon in syria. He treated some of the victims of the snipers in hamas. For those who dont understand the history of the Syrian Crisis, when the uprising started by the Peaceful Demonstrations by young people in the street, quietly diverse in the cities asking for political reform and the regime used several tactics to prevent what happened where you have a change in the regime and i think youve been in egypt and you would know but what is happening there. So they use snipers to shoot at demonstrators. And in many cities. And when doctors treated these victims of snipers, then doctors were put in prisons and tortured to death. And they also targeted the peaceful activists that are leading the demonstrations by killing and torture and putting them in prison. They also released the jihadist that were trained and recruited to fight american troops in iraq and basically this is predictable what they will do. They knew that jihadist will carry arms and causing the uprising to transform from peaceful to sectarian and so forth. And he allows them to fester in syria while targeting the moderate opposition in many other areas. And they knew that the jihadist will apply to other places. And they use extreme and unpress departmented unprecedented tactics to end this uprising. By using chemical weapons more than 200 times and targeting hospitals and doctors according to physicians for human rights, more than 580 hospitals were bombed in syria, mostly by the saudi regime and russia and 110 doctors and nurses were killed. One, they are discharging their humanitarian duty. The neurosurgeon was one part of the doctors in hamas and treated a victim and his family was wiped out by the regime and his brother was imprisoned and he was surrounded in the old city of hamas and then when the old city of hamas was controlled by the regime he was displaced to north of hamas where he continued to perform surgery on the victims before and also on kplu community for brain tumors and strokes and things like that. When the north of hamas was overrun by the regime, he moved to aleppo and now idlib and now in one of the largest hospitals in idlib. He continues to go to the hospital, knowing he may thought 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 that are are discharging their humanitarian duty knowing they may be killed while committing their duties. When we talk about the syrian communities in idlib, the main reason is the fact that you have hospital and clinics that are treating the children of the families and the communities there. People told me in aleppo and idlib, they will they will take the chance of living in neighborhoods and cities that will have bail bonds and missiles but when you dont have a physician that has a fever, then they will leave. So when we talk about half of the population of syria displaced, half of the population, 12 Million People in syria displaced, 7 million inside and 6 outside, 13 million. The main reason is this tactic that was done successfully by the assad regime by the iranians and russians to bomb and zroip hospitals, to bomb and destroy markets. The civilian infrastructure. And that is leading to the huge displacement of the population showing on social med extreme brutality that will happen to people who are left behind. So now in the social media youre seeing the videos of desecration of tombs and by assad regime militias so this is message sent to even your dead will not survive our brutality and if you come to the areas, youre have the same fate. Im going to speak also about the children in syria. Because this is the future of syria. And this is the drawing i brought with me from idlib. With children of the one of the refugee camps or displaced camps. And this is and this drawing was drawn with mud because it is very muddy. There was flooding in that camp. And we had to wear long boots to navigate the mud. And this child, her name is esma, and shes 12 years old north of hamas and she was displaced with her family seven times. Seven times. Were not talking in many other wars you have two one or two placement and then you have seven or eight displacement going north and to idlib and now these people dont have any other place to go. They are trapped. They cannot go to any other place. So if someone thinks they could flee to europe or turkey or jordan or lebanon or iraq, they cannot flee. Idlib is land locked. It is the size of and now the size and the space that these people are living is shrinking over and over. As told me she wants to be a daughter. Most of the children want to be doctors and teachers and architects and our government here can help them be a source of healing. And not only in syria but for the whole middle east. Instead of being a source of instability and chaos and extremism. If we just focus on syria, Pay Attention to it, because syria is important. Not because im syrian, not because the iphone was invented by Syrian American but is cream was invented by a Syrian American but because of the geography of syria. Because of the location of syria and certain places, the countries that surround syria, the fact that many may go through syria, for the many