WASHINGTON, D.C. (WMOT) -- Tennessee Senator Bob Corker is weighing in on the Syrian refugee crisis and the Obama Administration’s efforts to end the conflict there.
Corker chairs the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. On Tuesday Corker convened a meeting of the panel to hear testimony about the plight of Syrian refugees now streaming into Europe as well as Administration efforts to displace Syrian president Bashar Assad.
Corker put blame for the crisis squarely on Assad’s shoulders and sympathized with the refugees, stating that about half of the nation’s entire population has now been displaced by the fighting.
“The images of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children fleeing for safety should challenge every moral fiber within us. These are people just like us that want only to be able to raise their families in and cherish the same values and things that we all care about.”
President Obama met yesterday with Russian president Vladimir Putin to discuss the situation in Syria. That meeting reportedly ended without any agreement. Wednesday morning Putin announced that Russian troops will begin combat operations in support of the Syrian regime.