SAC Condemns Attack On White Helmets

We would like to thank Congressmen Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Brendan Boyle (D-PA) for establishing the Friends of a Free, Democratic, and Stable Syria Caucus, announced on May 25th. Congressmen Kinzinger and Boyle inspire us as they continue to spread awareness and show support for a free Syria.  

Last Week the Syrian American Council (SAC) and the Turkish Heritage Organization (THO) hosted on the Hill a congressional staffer briefing on US Foreign Policy in Syria: Regional Security and Strategic Challenges. SAC’s Policy and Advocacy Officer, Shlomo Bolts, served on the panel, along with Col. Brian Cook, Director of Theater Strategy at the Department of Strategy, Planning and Operations at the US Army War College, and Michael M. Gunther, THO Advisory Board Member and Professor of Political Science at the Tennessee Technological University. 

The Syrian American Council demands concrete and meaningful action from the Trump Administration after the shocking revelation that the Assad regime built a crematorium outside the notorious Saydnaya Prison. As explained by Acting Assistant Secretary of State for the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau, this crematorium helps the regime conceal evidence of at least 50 extrajudicial killings a day.

While the Syrian American Council supports all good-faith efforts to achieve peace in Syria, the memorandum of understanding on Syrian “de-escalation areas” signed in Astana, Kazakhstan today is unlikely to achieve peace. More likely, it will increase risks of partition, legitimize the role of Iran’s sectarian militias, and allow the regime side to continue killing civilians. 

Press Release

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April 6 2017

The Syrian American Council is encouraged to learn that President Trump is considering military strikes in response to this week’s heinous nerve gas attack on Syrian civilians by Assad regime forces. Some 100 people were killed in the attack, which occurred Tuesday in the northern town of Khan Sheikhoun and was followed by targeted regime airstrikes on nearby hospitals and clinics treating the same victims. The massacre was the worst chemical attack in Syria since the August 2013 Sarin attacks. We urge President Trump to ground the entire Syrian Air Force along with the regime's chemical weapons storage facilities, air bases, runways, and other military assets of Assad's war machine.

Press Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 6, 2017 Washington, DC - The Coalition for a Democratic Syria (CDS) -- a multi-ethnic, multi-sectarian coalition of six Syrian American advocacy organizations representing the Syrian American community including Syrian Christians for Peace, Syrian Emergency Task Force, Syrian American Council, United for a Free Syria, American Syriac Union, and the Association of a Free Syrians -- welcomes President Trump's consideration of military retaliation against the Assad regime for its massacre of civilians with chemical weapons.

Press Release

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March 29th 2017

The Syrian American Council salutes the Russian people for Sunday’s massive protests against the corruption and autocracy of Putin’s regime. Tens of thousands across Russia took to the streets and over 1000 were arrested after Russian dissident Alexei Navalny revealed that Putin’s prime minister had attained massive wealth through corruption, which is especially jarring in light of a deepening Russian economic crisis.

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The Syrian American Council, a grassroots Syrian-American organization, is profoundly alarmed over the recent uptick in US strikes on civilians, following Friday’s missile strike that killed over 40 civilians south of Aleppo and Tuesday's airstrike that left dozens of civilians dead in Raqqah. The Friday attack struck a mosque in al-Jineh village, south of Aleppo, killing at least 42 civilians at prayer. Tuesday's airstrike targeted a school that had been converted into housing for 50 displaced families.

The Syrian American Council, America's largest and oldest grassroots Syrian community organization, is proud to announce the release of "No Going Back: Forced Displacement in the Syrian Conflict," a new report on sectarian cleansing by the Assad regime and its allies. The report marks perhaps the first attempt to quantify the scale of sectarian cleansing and highlights the need for urgent measures to avoid a long-term Syrian refugee crisis that outlasts the war. Safe zones and sanctions on Iranian proxies are some of the measures advocated to reverse ongoing sectarian displacement trends.