Washington DC – A delegation of Syrian American women including the leadership of the Coalition for a Democratic Syria (CDS) along with humanitarian organizations and civil society members met on Friday, February 20th with Staffan de Mistura, the United Nations Special Envoy for Syria. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss de Mistura’s efforts to institute a freeze, or reduction of fighting, in Aleppo between regime and opposition forces.

This piece discusses the shortcomings of the international response to the crisis in Syria. Through the generous amounts of humanitarian aid, as well as the disproportionate focus of the media on extremist elements in the opposition, the authors assert that the global response has been to treat symptoms instead of to directly address the cause of the Syrian crisis. The United States needs to change its paradigm, and to lead the global community in confronting the Syrian Regime head-on.