Washington, DC -- “President Obama is right.  It’s time for the Assad regime to go.  The Assad dynasty was brutal under the late Hafez Assad and has only become more murderous under his son Bashar. 

“When I wrote the Syria Accountability Act in 2003, we focused on terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, destabilization of Iraq, and occupation of Lebanon.  The occupation is mostly over, but the Syria problem has gone from bad to worse with the crackdown on anti-government demonstrators.  I am glad that the President is imposing the remaining sanctions under the Act and is working closely with our allies in the European Union, including the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, to call for this illegitimate regime to leave at once.”

Rep. Eliot L. Engel is a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and was the author and sponsor of the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-175) which imposed sanctions on Syria for its weapons of mass destruction, support for terrorism, destabilization of Iraq, and occupation of Lebanon.  He is now lead Democratic sponsor of the Syria Freedom Support Act (H.R. 2106) and recently led a group of more than 200 members in writing to President Obama in calling for stiffer sanctions on Syria (which the President has now done).

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