Blog
Published on April 12, 2012
By Sadia Hameed
We asked you to sign a petition last week calling on U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to pressure Russia to stop its arms sales to Syria by canceling a U.S. contract with Rosoboronexport—Russia’s state-run arms dealer that has provided the Assad regime over $1 billion worth of weapons.
Let’s keep the pressure on the Department of Defense, this time on Twitter. Tell @DeptofDefense to stop the arms flow to #Syria!
Earlier this year, Human Rights First raised the issue of Rosoboronexport with Members of Congress. Since then, a bipartisan group of 17 Senators wrote to Secretary Panetta urging him to cancel the U.S. contract with the most significant enabler of Syrian mass atrocities.
With the current ceasefire agreement on shaky ground, the United States must now use all of its leverage—including its contract with Rosoboronexport—to stop the mass atrocities in Syria. Send a message to @DeptofDefense that the United States will not subsidize mass atrocities in Syria. Tweet now!
