In the News

Arkansans eager over Syria's future following Assad's fall

by Alex Thomas
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
December 11, 2024

WASHINGTON -- As Syrian rebel forces reached Syria's capital Damascus on Sunday, ending the Assad family's 54-year rule of the Middle Eastern country, Arkansans following the matter felt a sense of excitement about the regime's downfall.

President Bashir Assad and his government collapsed over the weekend as opposition forces stormed Damascus. The rebel advance brought an end to Assad's nearly 14-year struggle to crush demonstrations against the Syrian government that evolved into a civil war.

Russia, which backed Assad and his military forces, has granted asylum to the former president.

Thousands of civilians have died because of the war. More than 14 million Syrians have been displaced from their homes because of the conflict.

Natalie Larrison has been among the Arkansans watching the civil war and its humanitarian toll. Larrison, of Little Rock, serves as director of humanitarian programs and outreach for the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a nonprofit organization pushing an end to the civil war and relief for Syrians affected by the conflict.

"We are ecstatic," she said Monday. "We are simultaneously shocked and may not even believe our eyes."

The Syrian Emergency Task Force operates from multiple offices, including spaces in Washington, D.C., and Little Rock. The task force additionally supports student organizations at the University of Central Arkansas, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Little Rock Central High School.

Mouaz Moustafa, the organization's executive director, lived in Damascus before his family emigrated to the United States as a child. Moustafa spent his teenage years in Arkansas and graduated from the University of Central Arkansas in 2008.

He helped found the Syrian Emergency Task Force in March 2011 to provide relief to Syrians impacted by the civil war.

Jerry Adams of Conway met Moustafa following a March 2016 presentation on Moustafa's support of pro-democracy demonstrations. The former Acxiom Corp. executive would become the organization's board chair, a title he still holds.

"The reality is these are Syrians who have freed Syria," he said. "These are not countries. This is not Russia. This is not Iran. This is not Turkey."

The organization's efforts concerning the civil war have gone beyond raising awareness about the conflict's costs. The task force in 2016 started supporting the Wisdom House -- a school for young children -- and the Tomorrow's Dawn women's center, which provides vocational courses for women.

The organization previously supported both facilities' operations in the northwestern province of Idlib. After military forces attacked the Wisdom House and Tomorrow's Dawn in 2020, the task force moved these centers closer to the Turkish border in hopes of continuing to provide services in a safer environment.

Adams estimated "three or four thousand" women and children have gone through the centers.

"That whole humanitarian tact is something that Central Arkansas cut its teeth on," he said. "There's not only support in Conway; there's support in Little Rock, there's support in Hot Springs."

Members of the task force have traveled to liberated areas of Syria to understand the work at the Wisdom House and Tomorrow's Dawn, as well as camps helping impacted Syrians. Larrison recalled meetings with Syrians sharing hope about a war's end with an overwhelming sense of uncertainty.

"The most beautiful thing I saw is just the resilience in people and the hope to get to go home one day," she said. "Some of the biggest issues that they have is not having their homes anymore or not going to school if there is an available school around."

Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., cited Moustafa and the task force as an influence on his interest in Syria's future. Hill, of Little Rock, has pushed legislative action punishing the Assad regime for the production of the synthetic drug Captagon and supported the United Nations' mechanism for documenting Assad's actions targeting Syrians.

Hill was part of a delegation that entered northern Syria in August 2023 thanks to the task force. Hill and Reps. Ben Cline, R-Va., and Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis., became the first American lawmakers to make a known trip to Syria since the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in February 2017.

"It's just been a destructive, horrible decade for Syria and all of her citizens," Hill told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Tuesday.

"It was a lot of pleasure I saw last week the fleeing of Assad to his protector Vladimir Putin -- birds of a feather flock together -- as he went to Moscow."

U.S. officials have announced support for Syria in transitioning to a "representative, accountable Syrian government."

Matthew Miller, spokesperson for the State Department, mentioned during a Monday news conference the United States' ongoing support of United Nations Resolution 2254, a 2015 agreement promoting the international body's facilitation of a Syrian-led process forming a new government.

Hill hopes Syrians can move forward in crafting a "pluralistic society with a governing body." As for the United States' involvement, Hill pictures the country serving as a "regional partner" with other nations -- naming Turkey, Israel and European countries -- in promoting lasting peace in Syria.

"I know that's what the Syrian people want," he said. "They all want the same thing, which is a peaceful, prosperous Syria."

Larrison stressed the importance of the United States in Syria's future. She made note of the United States' "critical" military presence in the region serving as a deterrent to Iran, who supported Assad through military and financial assistance.

"We hope that the United States can use the leverage that we have in our mere presence in Syria to not only protect our values, but also protect Syrians' rights to their own land and set the precedent that countries are not able to colonize and come into a vacuum to take advantage of situations that are unstable," she said.

"The U.S. should be minimally present in (Syrians') daily lives. However, I think they are critical in upholding the values that our democracy has in place. It's extremely important that we support the Syrian people who share the same interests as us."