Press Statement

Hadi al Bahra

President of the Syrian Coalition

September 18, 2014

We welcome the House of Representative’s bipartisan decision today to grant President Obama’s authority to initiate a program to train and equip a force on the ground in Syria capable of degrading ISIS, pushing back its militants and eventually the Assad regime’s forces.

A fact sheet published by the White House on September 10 describing the US strategy to counter the threat of ISIS mentions the President calling on Congress to provide additional authorities to train and equip Syrian opposition fighters “so they can defend themselves and their neighborhoods against ISIL incursions and ultimately push back on ISIL forces and the Assad regime.”

We call on the Senate to back the train and equip program, as we call for its immediate implementation.