section_path: Foreign policy positions/The Assad regime in Syria/Controversial visit to Syria (2017)
section_name: Controversial visit to Syria (2017)
paragraph_text: Controversial visit to Syria (2017)
  
  In January 2017, Gabbard went on a one-week "fact-finding mission" to Syria and Lebanon, during which she met various political and religious leaders from both countries – and also had two unplanned meetings with then-Syrian-president Bashar al-Assad. The visit was arranged by two Lebanese American men connected to the Syrian Social Nationalist Party.
  
  The visit came after Gabbard had introduced legislation that would, in her words, "end our country's illegal war to overthrow the Syrian government." The visit was the first by a U.S. lawmaker since Nancy Pelosi in 2007, and made under a travel warning issued by the United States Department of State. As required by House rules, the House Ethics Committee approved the trip. (A State Department official said that, as the trip was private, the department was not involved.) The trip was privately funded by a Cleveland-based Arab American group sympathetic to Assad, but after facing controversy over the trips funding, Gabbard decided to personally reimburse the cost of the trip. As Gabbard explained to CNN's Jake Tapper, "When the opportunity arose to meet with, I did so because I felt it's important that if we profess to truly care about the Syrian people, about their suffering, then we've got to be able to meet with anyone that we need to if there's a possibility that we could achieve peace. And that's exactly what we've talked about." Regarding the rebel groups, she remarked: "he strongest fighting force on the ground in Syria is al-Nusra or Al Qaeda and ISIS."
  
  After her meeting with Syrian religious leaders, Gabbard said that they called for "an end to foreign support of terrorists who are trying to rid Syria of its secular, pluralistic, free society," however Assad's regime was often ranked in the bottom on international freedom rankings. Gabbard's visit to Assad was generally criticized by both sides of the political spectrum for giving Assad credibility despite the civilian deaths under his regime. A Ron Paul Institute article thanked Gabbard for "seeing through the double-bind foreign policy trap of our bipartisan war policy".
  
  In January 2017, Gabbard went on a one-week "fact-finding mission" to Syria and Lebanon, during which she met various political and religious leaders from both countries – and also had two unplanned meetings with then-Syrian-president Bashar al-Assad. The visit was arranged by two Lebanese American men connected to the Syrian Social Nationalist Party.
  
  The visit came after Gabbard had introduced legislation that would, in her words, "end our country's illegal war to overthrow the Syrian government." The visit was the first by a U.S. lawmaker since Nancy Pelosi in 2007, and made under a travel warning issued by the United States Department of State. As required by House rules, the House Ethics Committee approved the trip. (A State Department official said that, as the trip was private, the department was not involved.) The trip was privately funded by a Cleveland-based Arab American group sympathetic to Assad, but after facing controversy over the trips funding, Gabbard decided to personally reimburse the cost of the trip. As Gabbard explained to CNN's Jake Tapper, "When the opportunity arose to meet with, I did so because I felt it's important that if we profess to truly care about the Syrian people, about their suffering, then we've got to be able to meet with anyone that we need to if there's a possibility that we could achieve peace. And that's exactly what we've talked about." Regarding the rebel groups, she remarked: "he strongest fighting force on the ground in Syria is al-Nusra or Al Qaeda and ISIS."
  
  After her meeting with Syrian religious leaders, Gabbard said that they called for "an end to foreign support of terrorists who are trying to rid Syria of its secular, pluralistic, free society," however Assad's regime was often ranked in the bottom on international freedom rankings. Gabbard's visit to Assad was generally criticized by both sides of the political spectrum for giving Assad credibility despite the civilian deaths under his regime. A Ron Paul Institute article thanked Gabbard for "seeing through the double-bind foreign policy trap of our bipartisan war policy".