WASHINGTON (AP) – Secretary of State John Kerry will face skeptical senators when he appears before a Republican-led panel just a day after the United States and Russia agreed on a new cease-fire for Syria.
Kerry is scheduled to testify Tuesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee amid nagging questions over enforcement of the truce and how violations of the agreement will be handled. The cease-fire is to go into effect Saturday.
Congressional mistrust of Russia runs high on Capitol Hill and is sure to color the hearing. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the committee’s chairman, said he has no confidence Russia would abide by the cease-fire agreement. “I have a series of questions about our relationship with Russia and what we really expect them to honor and do,” Corker said.
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said he is very doubtful about anything that Russia agrees to in Syria. “The Russians continue to say that they’ll still go after terrorists, but that’s a very elastic term,” he said. “They’re going after anybody they want. I don’t trust them.”
The timeline for the truce comes after the United States and Russia, backing opposing sides in the conflict, agreed on terms for the “cessation of hostilities” between Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government and armed opposition groups. Five years of violence in Syria has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced 11 million more from their homes.