 Good afternoon. Thank you, Mike Thank you all for waiting for senator Romney and me We had a number of votes and so I appreciate that we're starting a little later, but hopefully I know It's a discussion that all of you have been waiting to participate in for a long time And I'm pleased to be joined by senator Romney as you heard we had the first hearing on the serious study group report this week and Hopefully it will be it is only the first of many actions that we will see in Congress and in the foreign relations committee to address Hopefully to implement the rec recommendations in the report I want to begin by expressing my gratitude for all of the amazing efforts of Michael sing and Dana Sturl Thank you both so much for your work co-chairing the serious study group and I so much appreciate all of the work of all of the members who served with you on the study group It it took nearly three years of hard work and perseverance to convince My congressional colleagues that we needed a bipartisan Objective assessment of what was happening in Syria and I want to credit my own foreign policy team and All of the other staff in the Senate for the hard work that they did to move this study, so some of them are here Thank you all very much Having just reviewed the recommendations from the report I can tell you that it was well worth The years that it took to get here. I only wish we had been able to get it done several years ago as The serious study group report makes clear the conflict represents one of the most Devastating tragedies that the world has ever seen more than five hundred thousand Syrians have been killed since the onset of the war in 2011 and according to the United Nations and additional 1,000 civilians in northern Syria have lost their lives in just over the last four months due to Syrian Russian and Iranian airstrikes and ground attacks The conflict has spurred the largest Migration crisis since World War two with over five point six million people seeking refuge in Lebanon Turkey Jordan and of course across Europe. We have seen the migration that started with the conflict in Syria That's led to so many other Unexpected consequences because of that and of course millions more have been displaced inside Syria We've also witnessed one of the worst Humanitarian crises of our time with vulnerable populations in Syria suffering from inadequate access to humanitarian assistance Basic things like sanitation and food and of course the crisis has resulted in increased rates of gender-based violence including rape domestic violence sex trafficking child marriage and child labor and While one would think that what was happening in Syria alone should have spurred international action It should have resulted in More action in the United States The path toward a political settlement Towards trying to intervene in Syria has really been marred by uncertainty and by an unwillingness of the international community to engage So working with many of my colleagues in the Senate including the late John McCain who helped bolster support for the Syria study group We worked to try and Put down a predicate that says that US leadership is essential to stability and a rules-based order across the Middle East and in Syria and time and again We've seen that when the United States seeds its leadership Those who oppose our values and that rules-based order are all too willing to step in and Syria is a perfect example of that So in 2013 along with my colleagues on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee I voted in favor of a resolution that would have authorized us military action against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in Response to his use of chemical weapons, and I think it's important to give a little of this past history Because it helps explain how we got to where we are today that vote passed in committee 10 to 7 but the resolution was never considered on the floor either in the House or the Senate and our failure to act in response to the Poisoning the chemical attack on the Syrian people was heard by both Non-state actors belligerent non-state actors and other countries After that we saw Russia move into Syria in a bigger way and we saw Iran become increasingly aggressive as it worked to prop up the Assad regime and then in 2014 we heard the devastating news that James Foley who happens to be a constituent who was raised in New Hampshire Constituent of mine that he was Beheaded by ISIS along with his fellow Americans Peter Kasig and Steven Sotloff and It was really those actions I think that brought ISIS to the attention of the world and by 2015 ISIS controlled an area roughly the size of the state of Indiana in Iraq and Syria They're caliphate and they raised over one billion dollars a year in revenue Attracting over 40,000 people for more than a hundred countries to join ISIS violent cause in Syria And of course as we know unfortunately the ISIS problem in Syria didn't stay in Syria ISIS coordinated and inspired its followers to conduct widespread assaults against civilians worldwide Including in the United States, and you know, I remember sitting in some of those classified briefings in 2013 and 2014 as we're hearing about the rise of ISIS and thinking how did Al Qaeda morph into ISIS and Become so many thousand strong without somebody blowing the whistle without somebody in the international community without us without our military blowing the whistle on that So We are here I think because of the failure of American foreign policy and because of the inaction of the international community That is what has led us to this point And it's what really gave rise to the idea of creating the serious study group. So we would have some sort of objective more objective look at what we should do and an assessment on how to respond and While I had hoped we'd have this assessment several years ago, as I said Given President Trump's announcement that he wants to withdraw from Syria last December I think this report and its recommendations have come in just the length of time I Agree wholeheartedly with the authors of this report that the United States even with its limited footprint Has achieved extraordinary gains in Syria and that it would be foolish to let all of that go now in fact Assad only controls 60% of Syria's territory with much of that territory suffering from a proliferation of criminal gangs and poverty and In fact, it may be as the report suggests that the greatest humanitarian disaster in Syria is still before us With escalated attacks since late April the Syrian regime and its Russian and Iranian allies are threatening a population of approximately three million in Idlib province and two-thirds of those People are women and children and other parts of Syria We're seeing the emergence of a rapidly developing ISIS insurgency that we must address and to suggest that we have solved the ISIS problem and we can go home and not have to worry about it is Just not looking at the situation as it exists Some 18,000 ISIS fighters remain mobilized throughout Iraq and Syria and another 10,000 are tenuously jailed in prisons throughout Northeast Syria You know I I had the opportunity to visit Iraq last a this past April and one of the things We heard very clearly from our military leaders who were there and from the Iraqis is that ISIS fighters Are still there and they are just biding their time They are just waiting to see what we're going to do what the coalition is going to do and The Iraqis were very clear that they remain a constant threat to stability in Iraq now that's why it's so exciting to see what We were able to do working with some of our coalition allies in Northeast Syria and I got to witness the effect of our leadership in Syria first hand last summer I Visited with Lindsey Graham Syria northeastern Syria, and I actually went there because I've been working with the families of James Foley and The other Americans killed there because they want to try and bring the terrorists responsible for those murders back to justice in the United States, and we think we know who some of those terrorists are who killed James Foley they are being held in detention in Syria and The families would like to see them brought back here to justice so Senator Graham and I went over initially to try and see what we could find out about where they were being held about how Secure they are and about the potential to bring them back to the United States But what I found when I got there was something that I was not at all expecting to see and that was a northeastern Syria that Was seen a return of refugees who had left that part of the country. It was We went into Mambage. We saw walk through the marketplace without any body armor on Talked to the merchants who were in the marketplace Traveled along the road saw the farms that were beginning to come back very rich farmland and met with some of the leaders in Mambage in a restaurant Sat down and talked with the SDF commanders and with the local Arab Councils and Everywhere we went what we heard from the Syrian people that we talked to was Please stay don't let America leave make sure you stay we need you there because We are finally seeing some stability return to the country and You know, we traveled along the road and children walking along the road We're flashing V for victory signs at the American troops when they saw us So I came back Not just with information and thoughts about how to address the detainee situation but I came back convinced that the Effort that we were putting in northeast Syria the 2000 or so troops the 200 million dollars in stabilization money that is there Is making a huge impact and it would be a terrible mistake for us to leave to leave Syria to the Russians to the Iranians to Assad To the brutality of what continues to be one of the worst humanitarian conflicts that we've seen To we're not sure what will happen with Turkey along the northeastern border to abandon our allies and partners the Syrian Democratic Forces So I am in wholehearted agreement with what the report says with those recommendations and It is clear in my mind anyway that those American troops those diplomats who have been there Continue to serve as a shield against the ISIS cells that are operating in northeast Syria continue to serve as shield against total abandonment of Syria to Russia and Iran and a recognition that While the president may believe that ISIS has been defeated that Conditions on the ground in Syria and across the world paint a very different picture and If the United States diminishes its presence We run the risk of enabling a resurgence of ISIS We run the risk of the capitulation or all-out destruction of our partners in the region and the eventual loss of the resource rich territory that the United States currently helps to control and Unfortunately instead of leveraging those gains as the report suggests we can do this administration has chosen to squander them and we are again faced with uncertainty in Syria and Again, that's what I believe this report tells us that we have an opportunity again to Staying strong at the negotiating table to be in a position where all of our allies are willing to listen to us But we've got to take some definitive actions. We've got to breathe new life into the policies that got us into Syria in the first place and We should not cede those hard-fought gains to Assad to Russia and to Iran and that ultimately the United States and the president should Recognize that our leadership is essential to completely defeating ISIS and to helping to address the terrible humanitarian situation in the Middle East and in Syria and One of the lines that I like best from the report as Asserts and I quote no one argues that withdrawing US troops would make ISIS less likely to regroup or Iran less likely to entrench itself in quote Bringing an end to the horrific violence in Syria, which has put so much pressure on our allies should be our main focus working with the international community and I believe that the authors of this report have played a critical role in Helping to lay out once again the arguments for why that's in America's interest and How we can actually move the ball forward in Syria in a way that's positive because there is still time There is still room for America to achieve its aims by working with our partners and securing peace in the region The challenge now will be to ensure that we begin to implement the recommendations in this report That we heed the bipartisan call of this serious study group and its recommendations, and I can tell you that At least today not only have we had a hearing this week on the report Which I think begins to give us a blueprint for how to move forward in Congress But one of the recommendations the creation of the ISIS detainee coordinator is in the National Defense Authorization Act So that should pass as soon as we pass the NDAA this this year which should be sometime next month and We're also beginning to see some of the actions of some of our allies on addressing The issues that are raised in the report I heard this week that Germany is beginning to put on trial some of the Syrians who are in Germany for Crimes against humanity. I think that is another sign that this is an International issue it's important to the international community and that for the United States to continue to be relevant We need to stay at the table. We need to exercise leadership, and that's what this report says So congratulations again. Thank you all very much for your work and for the opportunity to speak today