Syrian civil society places blame on Biden admin for Assad's normalisation

Members of Syrian civil society have said they are "horrified" with the Biden administration's Syria policy, accusing it of not taking strong enough measures to block normalisation of Bashar al-Assad's regime.

"Sadly now, Assad is getting red-carpet welcomes and 21-gun salutes all across the region, to almost crickets from the [Biden] administration," Mohammed Alaa Ghanem, the head of policy at the Syrian American Council (SAC), told The New Arab.

The Syrian regime, once a global pariah for its bloody crackdown on protesters during the Syrian uprising, has been welcomed back into the Arab diplomatic fold in recent months.

On 7 May, Syria was readmitted to the Arab League, a symbol of its increasing acceptance in the region 12 years after it was kicked from the pan-Arab body.

While the Biden administration has consistently made public statements against the normalisation of the Assad regime, advocates have said that its policy has not backed up its rhetoric.

"The US does not support normalisation with the Syrian regime, nor do we support other countries, including our partners and allies, partaking in normalisation either," US Deputy State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said on 4 May.

According to Ghanem, the Biden administration "de-prioritised" Syria on the foreign policy agenda by not appointing a Syria envoy and not enforcing sanctions against countries which normalised.

The Caesar Act, a package of Syria sanctions passed by the US Congress in 2019, allows for sanctions to be imposed against individuals of any nationality who support or do business with the Assad regime.

Sanctions under the Caesar Act are imposed at the discretion of the executive branch.

Analysts have said that the Biden administration has been reluctant to impose sanctions, in contrast to the previous administration.

A bipartisan group of members of Congress introduced a bill to strengthen the Caesar Act and create an annual strategy to counter normalisation with the Assad regime by other countries.

At various points, regional actors have conferred with the US on their plans to re-engage with the Assad regime.

In the summer of 2021, Jordan presented the Biden administration with a "step-for-step" plan to re-engage with Assad in exchange for concessions around "drug trafficking" and "terrorism".

According to sources close to the Jordanian government, the Biden administration gave an "orange light" to Jordan's plan, telling Jordan it would not block such moves but would also not endorse it.

Arab Foreign Ministers met in Amman on 1 May, issuing a communique in support of the step-by-step plan.

A White House National Security Council told The National newspaper that it was "encouraged" by the communique and hoped the Syrian regime would "follow through on its commitments."

By contrast, several Syrian civil society members do not see the recent diplomatic contact with the regime as a sign that normalisation is imminent, nor that the US has abandoned the Syrian opposition.

"The [White House] is saying that they agree with the Arab initiative in its final outcome, which is UNSC 2254, so they do not want to clash with the steps towards that final objective," Ayman Abdel Nour, the head of the Syrian Christian's Initiative for Peace, told TNA.

Abdel Nour explained that he views the step-by-step plan advocated for in Amman as a route towards UN Security Council resolution 2254, which calls for a political solution to the Syrian civil war.

The proposed reforms in the Amman communique focused on ensuring an end to cross-border drug smuggling and creating conditions for the safe return of refugees to Syria.

These do not include some of the human-rights-centric reforms called for by the UN and the US, including releasing the estimated 136,000 detainees in regime prisons and fair elections in Syria.