Thread by @Charles_Lister

"I've been asking a simple, but important question.. What is the administration's strategy on #Syria?" -- @SenatorMenendez

"I remain concerned this administration has accepted #Assad's rule as a foregone conclusion." -- @SenatorRisch

SFRC hearing, now.

@SenatorMenendez @SenatorRisch "I was shocked to see Bashar al-#Assad welcomed as any other Head of State by the #UAE."

- @SafiraLeaf, Assistant Secretary of State for #MiddleEast.

@SenatorMenendez @SenatorRisch @SafiraLeaf "I will make the #Syria crisis & applying pressure on the #Assad regime, a priority in the administration."

- @SafiraLeaf, Assistant Secretary of State for #MiddleEast.

@SenatorMenendez @SenatorRisch @SafiraLeaf "The #Captagon trade is something associated with the #Assad family.. the Saudis, Jordanians are deeply concerned about this toxic trade."

- @SafiraLeaf, Ass. SecState for #MiddleEast.

Several "U.S. agencies" are already engaged in combating the trade, financing, smuggling etc.

@SenatorMenendez @SenatorRisch @SafiraLeaf "We have not seen any change to #Russia's deployment in #Syria, or to its posture in defending #Assad's regime."

- @dstroul, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense #MiddleEast.

@SenatorMenendez @SenatorRisch @SafiraLeaf @dstroul "How many more times does a witness to war crimes need to sit in front of you and describe the horrors of the #Assad regime?"

- The #GraveDigger speaks before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

@SenatorMenendez @SenatorRisch @SafiraLeaf @dstroul "Twice a week, 3 or 4 pickup trucks with 30-40 civilian bodies who'd been executed in Sednaya Prison, arrived for disposal in the most inhumane way.”

- The #GraveDigger speaks before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

@SenatorMenendez @SenatorRisch @SafiraLeaf @dstroul In his SFRC testimony, the #GraveDigger says mass graves are still being dug by #Assad's regime today -- some of those involved "recently escaped" #Syria.

Americans were among those murdered, and Europeans, journalists & aid workers.

@SenatorMenendez @SenatorRisch @SafiraLeaf @dstroul "I buried so many children tortured to death & I remember them all."

“I buried a mother still holding her infant to her breast as their lifeless bodies were thrown in the trench.”

The #GraveDigger testifies to SFRC on #Assad's mass murder of civilian detainees.