Two Lawmakers Visit Syria, Hope to ‘Make Syria Great Again’

Let’s be clear: Syria is now run by jihadists who have been making tremendous efforts to present themselves as moderates to the West. Ahmed al-Sharaa, the de facto ruler of Syria, has traded in his battle fatigues for a reassuring coat and tie, He speaks of guaranteeing the rights of minorities. But Sunni Arabs, including members of his own rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), recently massacred more than one thousand Alawite men, women, and children in Latakia. Al-Sharaa promised to find and punish the killers, but so far nothing appears to have been done. A few Christians, too, have been killed with impunity by Sunnis. Al-Sharaa has tried to persuade the Kurds to fold their militia into the national army; they first agreed to this, and then changed their minds. They recognized, on further reflection, the need have their militia remain outside the army in order to be able to defend the Kurdish region from attacks by Turkey, that is closely allied to the new rulers in Damascus. The Druze in Syria were also asked to place their militia under the army’s control, but they have refused to do so. Some Druze have asked for Israel to protect them. Druze villagers in Hadar have even asked to be annexed by Israel.

Two Congressmen, Cory Mills and Martin Stutzman, have just travelled to Syria, full of hope that the country has been transformed, and is now a country with whom the American can deal, perhaps even providing aid in order, as one of them said, “to make Syria great again.” More on this fool’s errand can be found here: “First American lawmakers travel to post-Assad Syria to meet with new president,” by Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod, Jewish Insider, April 18, 2025:

Two House Republicans are traveling to Syria for meetings with new Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa and other senior Syrian officials. Reps. Cory Mills (R-FL) and Marlin Stutzman (R-IN) are the first known American lawmakers to travel to the war-torn country and meet with al-Sharaa since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024.

The two will also meet with Syrian Foreign Affairs Minister Asaad al-Shaibani during their visit, which was organized and funded by the Syrian American Alliance for Peace and Prosperity. The delegation is not sponsored by the U.S. government.

In a video shared by the organization on Friday, taken from the plane en route to Damascus, Mills said that it will be “a real honor to be there. We look forward to having a free, democratically elected Syria, a Syria that’s going to advance forward, build trade and economic relationships with the U.S., and hopefully continue to advance. As we make America great again, let’s make Syria great again.”

Apparently the two congressmen do not realize that Syria is not now, and will not be for at least five years, a democracy. The current head of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, essentially appointed himself to be the de facto ruler. A presidential election in Syria is planned to take place within five years of the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024. Perhaps someone will enlighten them before they hail al-Sharaa as the “democratically-elected leader of a new Syria.” No, he is the latest despot to rule Syria, albeit as a Sunni, much more popular than the Alawaite Assad family.

According to social media posts, the two lawmakers are also set to meet with other officials from the al-Sharaa government, civil society leaders and Christian leaders. They will also visit a notorious Assad regime prison and areas destroyed in the country’s protracted civil war.

Does anyone expect that the “civil society leaders” they will meet with will dare to criticize the current regime? They would be terrified to do so, knowing what would happen to them after the congressmen left. The Christian leaders, too, will have only praise for the regime, even though Christians have recently been murdered by Sunnis, who resent the protected position they had under Bashar Assad.

Mills, a veteran and former military contractor, has traveled to conflict zones including Afghanistan as a lawmaker and candidate, and worked to help evacuate Americans from such environments. Mills sits on the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services Committees, and has frequently worked on Middle East issues, including some Syria policy legislation….

As a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who has given special attention to American policy toward Syria, Mills ought to be better informed than he appears to be. He is taking al-Sharaa at his word — a “moderate” from whom the Americans have nothing to fear. The Alawites, the Kurds, the Druze in Syria — and the Israelis — all beg to differ. They are not fooled by al-Sharaa’s masquerade of “moderation.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said this week that Israeli forces will remain in Syria indefinitely, citing the need to maintain security buffers along the countries’ shared border.

The Israelis understand what Stutzman and Mills do not: jihadists are now in power in Damascus, and cannot be trusted.

The lawmakers’ visit also comes at the same time as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ trip to Syria. Details of both delegations have been scant. Spokespeople for Mills and Stutzman’s respective offices did not respond to Jewish Insider’s request for comment on the trip.

One hopes that Mills and Stutzman will not meet with Mahmoud Abbas during their stay in Syria, and in their naivete, praise him as a “true moderate” with whom “we Americans can work,” or worse still, “the international community should support the Palestinian Authority to take over Gaza.”

Someone — Secretary of State Marco Rubio? — should set the two congressmen straight, as soon as possible, on the jihadists who now rule Syria. He should remind them that the promised Syrian “democracy” will not kick in until Dec. 2029. He should tell them that Ahmed al-Sharaa in the past was a supporter of Al Qaeda and ISIS, though he now assures the world, most implausibly, that he has completely changed. Rubio can tell them of the fears among the Alawites, the Kurds, the Druze, and the Christians about the Sunni jihadists now running things in Damascus. Those minorities will not, of course, complain to the congressmen for fear of repercussions from the government after Mills and Stutzman have left, under the new dispensation in Damascus. And under no condition, he should warn them, should the American congressmen declare their support for Ahmed al-Sharaa.

They should call their trip “fact-finding,” and return to report that “Syria is now under rule by Sunnis, some of whom have been wreaking their vengeance on the Alawites. The government has been attempting to force the Kurds and the Druze to place their militias under the control of the Syrian army, something they are both reluctant to do. Turkey has been taking land in the north, where it is now establishing military bases, in order to threaten the Kurds. We told President al-Sharaa that he cannot expect the lifting of any sanctions on Syria as long as the minorities feel so threatened, and that we expect him to fulfill his promise to treat all Syrians equally.”

Such a statement would go a long way to allay fears about their trip, and the misunderstandings that could arise if al-Sharaa were to interpret that trip as an earnest of support for his regime.