US Senator Lindsey Graham on Tuesday said Syrian Kurds are “under threat from the new Syrian government that is aligned with Turkey” and that he will introduce legislation this week to impose “crippling sanctions” on any government or group involved in hostilities against Kurds.
The South Carolina Republican said in a post on X that abandoning the Kurds, whom he described as the chief US ally in destroying the Islamic State group’s territorial hold, would be “a disaster for America’s reputation and national security interests.” He said his proposal, the “Save the Kurds Act,” should draw bipartisan support and “must have teeth to make it effective.”
Graham did not publish the legislative text or spell out which governments or armed groups he wants to target.
His statement comes as Syria’s new authorities press to extend state control into areas that have been dominated for years by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US partner force during the campaign against the Islamic State group in Syria.
A ceasefire between Syria’s Defense Ministry and the SDF was extended by 15 days on January 24, according to Syria’s government and the SDF.
The pause has been tied to a US effort to move Islamic State detainees held in northeastern Syria to Iraq amid concerns that renewed fighting could trigger prison breaks. US Central Command said on January 21 it had launched a mission to transfer Islamic State detainees from northeastern Syria to Iraq “to help ensure the terrorists remain in secure detention facilities.”
The ceasefire extension was reportedly intended, in part, to give US forces time to transfer about 7,000 accused Islamic State prisoners from prisons in northeastern Syria to Iraqi custody.
Humanitarian conditions have also attracted attention in Kobane, a Kurdish-majority city in northern Syria also known as Ain al-Arab. A United Nations convoy recently delivered food, health supplies and winter relief items to Kobane, the first such delivery since the latest fighting began earlier in January.
Turkey has long opposed the SDF, saying it is linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on January 21 that Kurdish forces in northern Syria must lay down arms and disband, after a ceasefire agreement between the SDF and Damascus. Erdoğan welcomed the ceasefire but said full disbandment was necessary to prevent further bloodshed.
Graham’s new threat echoes earlier episodes when he pressed for sanctions tied to events in Syria and Turkey. During Turkey’s 2019 incursion into northern Syria, Graham said he would introduce legislation for “devastating” sanctions on Turkey.