Intel: Remaining protection invoice provides Congress extra oversight of US Syria coverage

The US Senate voted 88-11 on Wednesday to go subsequent 12 months’s annual protection spending invoice, dashing by a compromise model that now heads to President Biden’s desk.

A lot of amendments have been stripped from the $778 billion bill after already having handed the Home, together with measures relating to US coverage within the Center East.

Amongst those that didn’t make it have been restrictions on US cooperation with Saudi Arabia over the homicide of Jamal Khashoggi and the Saudi-led coalition’s conduct in Yemen’s battle, and extra congressional oversight of the Egyptian government’s harassment of Americans.

However a handful of provisions on regional coverage survived the backroom offers, together with one demanding stricter oversight of Washington’s insurance policies in direction of the conflict in Syria.

The 2022 Nationwide Protection Authorization Act (NDAA) requires the administration to report back to lawmakers on its imaginative and prescient for an endgame for the battle, in addition to on diplomatic means to realize these aims in talks with main gamers like Russia and Turkey.

Lawmakers are demanding to see a timeline for weaning native Syrian fighters off US navy help, in addition to a plan for convincing overseas governments to repatriate their residents detained in jail camps housing Islamic State members in Syria.

The invoice would additionally compel the Biden administration to share its efforts to prevent Arab states from normalizing ties with the Bashar al-Assad regime and Damascus’ readmission to the Arab League – lengthy a diplomatic objective of Russia’s.

The measure, authored by Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), chair of the Home’s overseas affairs panel, and Center East subcommittee chair Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), accompanies one other which might require the administration to report publicly on the Assad household’s private funds — a possible indicator of whether or not US economic sanctions are altering the regime’s habits.

Why it Issues: Congress is popping up the warmth on the White Home’s stance in direction of Syria’s stalemated battle.

Biden administration officers insist the coverage is grounded in humanitarian concern, somewhat than a subset of the Trump administration’s counter-Iran strategy. They’ve additionally publicly warned of the risk of US economic sanctions for coping with the Assad regime.

However some experts and former officials have seen the method as too hands-off, particularly as regional leaders brazenly discover renewed ties with Damascus. 

The Syria measure may allow lawmakers to press policymakers on that problem particularly. But critics have mentioned the invoice misses different alternatives to reform Washington’s coverage within the area. 

Senate lawmakers final week tossed out a measure compelling the US to counter the Syrian government’s large Captagon drug commerce. The ultimate protection invoice additionally makes no point out of how US sanctions are hurting Washington’s Kurdish-led allies in Syria’s northeast.

What’s Subsequent: The invoice heads to President Biden’s desk.

Know Extra: Learn Al-Monitor’s report on Rep. Ro Khanna’s modification to curtail US help for the Saudi-led battle effort in Yemen.