Middle East Institute Senior Fellow Charles Lister, who helped organize the list sent to Biden and Blinken, told me that the signatories don’t expect the administration to suddenly decide to ramp up its Syria engagement. But it is wrong to say that there are no good options.
“It did not need to be this way,” Lister said. “Yes, the days of forcing the Assad regime out are long gone, but there are many other things we could still be doing to have a useful and productive effect for the United States and the Syrian people.”