Sec. 2. Findings

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Congress makes the following findings: In March 2011, peaceful demonstrations in Syria began against the authoritarian rule of Bashar al-Assad. The regime responded with terrible violence against the citizens of Syria, including the use of weapons of war, torture, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary executions, sexual violence, and interference with access to medical treatment. In December 2011, the Government of Syria agreed to allow an Arab League observer group into the country to assess the humanitarian and political situation on the ground.

However, on January 28, 2012, the League officially ended its observer mission, citing escalating violence and the intransigence of the Assad regime. In February 2012, the group Friends of the Syrian People met in Tunis and issued a declaration demanding, among other things, that the Syrian regime allow free and unimpeded access by the United Nations and humanitarian agencies to carry out a full assessment of needs . On March 16, 2012, United Nations and League of Arab States Special Envoy Kofi Annan presented a six-point peace plan for Syria that called on the Government of Syria to, among other things— commit to stop the fighting and urgently achieve a United Nations-supervised cessation of violence; cease military activity in and around civilian population centers; work with the Envoy in an inclusive Syrian-led political process; ensure timely provision of humanitarian assistance; release arbitrarily detained persons; ensure freedom of movement for journalists; and respect freedom of association and the right to demonstrate peacefully.

As of February 2013, the United Nations estimated that nearly 70,000 people have been killed as a result of the violence in Syria. As a result of the violence, the United Nations estimates that 4,000,000 people are in need of humanitarian assistance, including access to food, water, shelter, and medical care: the Syrian Arab Red Crescent estimates that, more than 2,500,000 are internally displaced in Syria. Basic services such as health care, education, electricity, and water have also been cut off in some parts of the country.

Syria faces growing food insecurity, as wheat harvests have declined due to drought. The United Nations has been providing food aid to 1,500,000 Syrians since September 2012, with the number of people requiring such aid expected to reach 2,500,000 people in the months following February 2013. Millions of Syrians have fled their homes due to escalating violence. According to the United Nations, there are more than 1,000,000 Syrian refugees registered in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, and Iraq, and even more who are unregistered.

Also according to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, more than 2,500,000 Syrians are displaced within the country. More than three-quarters of refugees and internally displaced persons are women and children, who are particularly vulnerable to economic and physical insecurity. In January 2013, a donor pledging conference was held in Kuwait, pledging an additional $1,500,000,000 in humanitarian assistance to the existing $1,000,000,000 already provided for Syria. The Governments of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates each pledged $300,000,000.

Kuwait’s ambassador to the European Union called it the largest humanitarian pledging conference in the history of the United Nations . According to the United Nations, only 13 percent of the $1,500,000,000 pledged in Kuwait has been received to date. Challenges exist to ensure this assistance reaches those who need it. An agreement between the United Nations and the Syrian regime to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance in the country has allowed aid workers greater access to victims of the conflict.

However, staff of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent cite security concerns as a major obstacle to aid distribution. The Government of Syria is also refusing to grant visas for aid workers from countries that have criticized the regime, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and France. Amnesty International’s 2012 Annual Report on Syria, along with the findings of other human rights groups, details a number of atrocities in Syria.

In November 2012, the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry indicated that Syria’s military forces have employed killings, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, imprisonment, or other forms of severe deprivation of liberty and enforced disappearances to maintain their hold on the country. Human Rights Watch raises concerns that authorities in Syria could choose to kill detainees rather than allow them to be released in the event of a political transition.

As of March 2013, according to the Department of State, the United States Government has provided nearly $385,000,000 in humanitarian assistance to support those affected by the violence in Syria. On February 28, 2013, the United States Government announced its plans to provide an additional $63,000,000 in non-lethal assistance to the Syrian Opposition Coalition and the Supreme Military Council. On February 18, 2013, the Council of the European Union called on the Syrian regime to allow the delivery of humanitarian assistance to reach all those in need and amended their sanctions against the regime to allow greater non-lethal support and technical assistance to the opposition for the protection of civilians.

The February 26, 2013, communique by the Friends of the Syrian People International Working Group on Sanctions called on all states to take steps, in their own capacity, by imposing, at a minimum, an asset freeze on senior Syrian regime officials involved in the repression, as well as an asset freeze on, and restrictions on transactions with banks tied with the Syrian regime such as the Central Bank of Syria, the Commercial Bank of Syria and the Syrian International Islamic Bank .

According to the Unclassified Report to Congress on the Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced Conventional Munitions Covering 1 January to 31 December 2011, Syria has had a [chemical weapons] program for many years and has a stockpile of CW agents, which can be delivered by aerial bombs, ballistic missiles, and artillery rockets. In a hearing before the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate in March 2012, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey testified that the magnitude of Syria's chemical weapons arsenal was 100 times more than we experienced in Libya .

The Government of Syria's stockpiles are thought to include mustard, sarin, and VX gases. There are concerns about the existence of numerous rebel militias and their role in Syria during a post-transition period. On June 30, 2012, during an international meeting on Syria in Geneva, Special Envoy Kofi Annan said, A transition must be implemented in a climate of safety for all, stability and calm, including completion of withdrawals and the disarming, demobilization and reintegration of armed groups.

According to reports, the Government of Iran provides resources and military training to groups such as Jaysh al-Shi’ite. These groups also receive military training from Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).