Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said today that the Obama administration "has sat on its hands" and refused to give adequate aid in the Middle East to those fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, which he said has created one of the worst humanitarian disasters in years.
"I'm saddened by the lack of a will to do anything from the president," Corker told MSNBC today. "We've missed opportunity after opportunity."
In 2013, Corker sponsored legislation to arm and train a vetted Syrian opposition force when the Obama administration did not support such a policy.
As a result, President Vladimir Putin is escalating his support for the Assad regime in Syria because he thinks the Obama administration won't stop him, Corker said.
"He sees no push back, no price to pay," Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told a Washington Ideas Forum on Wednesday. "What he's doing is raising popularity in his country."
Corker said the lack of a U.S. response to Assad's attacks on his own Syrian population has led to the displacement of 11 million people, many of whom are fleeing as refugees to Europe.
Russia began conducting airstrikes in Syria on Wednesday morning, according to news reports. Russia says that it is only targeting ISIS, but Corker said many Innocent people are being attacked as well.
"Is essence we have done nothing (to fight Assad or the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)," Corker said, "while the greatest number of women have been raped, the highest number of people have been killed, the biggest refugee crisis and the most number of women and children are killed" in the ongoing Syrian civil war.
"In the absence of leadership from the Obama administration, Putin continues to do what he wishes fearing no push back from the United States, and now Russia is conducting air strikes that are exacerbating the humanitarian crisis," Corker said. "The failure to respond effectively to the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II is a blight on us and other western nations."
Corker has requested that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry testify on Syria next week before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.