WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has decided that the United States should take in at least 10,000 refugees from Syria over the next year, White House officials said Thursday.
Obama has passed the directive on to his administration, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said during his afternoon briefing, adding that the president and Secretary of State John F. Kerry are “in alignment” on the numbers.
The U.S. also will urge other nations in the region and around the world to step up their efforts to take in refugees.
The U.S. commitment is for the fiscal year that begins next month, officials said. During the current fiscal year, 1,600 Syrian refugees have come to the United States.
That’s less than 10 percent of the total number of names submitted by the United Nations, but Obama administration officials say the screening process for admitting refugees is difficult and time-consuming.
As millions of refugees flee the violence in Syria and surge into surrounding countries and Europe, refugee organizations have asked the United States to take in 100,000 Syrians — a dramatic increase over the 70,000 refugees from all countries admitted in the current fiscal year. Earnest said Thursday that such a large increase would be difficult without a significant increase in funds approved by Congress.
The Obama administration has been under growing pressure from allies to expand military action in Syria, particularly as Russia sends in arms and troops and Islamic State militants gain ground.
But it is the waves of Syrian refugees flooding into European countries that has brought the crisis into focus and inspired new calls for a change in the strategy to attack the underlying problems driving the violence.
It comes during a year in which Obama has been increasingly criticized for not setting a clear strategy for dealing with the Islamic State group, with many critics, and even allies, beginning to call for a stronger military response.
On Thursday, Earnest reiterated the administration’s refrain, that the conflict requires a political solution.
When asked about Russian military operations in Syria, Earnest said that had been the subject of conversations between Kerry and his Russian counterpart over the past week.
“In those conversations, Secretary Kerry conveyed to his counterpart that the United States continues to believe that there must urgently be a political solution to the conflict in Syria,” he said. “And while in general, we would welcome constructive Russian contributions to counter ISIL efforts, we would oppose any actions any Syria that would empower the regime to escalate the conflict.”
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