Senior Arab parliamentarians meet with Assad to talk about Syria
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Sulaiman
- . February 27, 2023
- . Update: February 27, 2023 4:50 pm
A delegation of senior Arab parliamentarians arrived in Damascus, the capital of Syria, to meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad and discuss the current situation in the country.
The heads of Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Libya and Egypt and representatives from Oman and Lebanon arrived in Syria as part of a delegation from the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union. They met with Syrian parliamentarians and Assad.
Iraqi parliament Speaker Mohammed Halbousi said, “We cannot do without Syria and Syria cannot do without its Arab environment, which we hope it can return to.”
According to the news agency SANA, the senior Arab parliamentarians talked with Assad after more than a decade of isolation over the conflict and crisis in Syria. Many countries slammed Assad’s deadly crackdown against protesters in huge demonstrations that erupted against his rule in 2011. In 2011, Arab League suspended Syria’s membership over the conflict in the country. Subsequently, Arab countries pulled their envoys out of Syria.
The recent earthquake changed the scenario in Syria. Assad and Syria received support and humanitarian aid from Arab states following the destructive earthquake on February 6, which killed more than 5,900 people across Syria.
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On February 7, Egypt’s President Abdul Fattah El-Sisi called Assad for the first time to send his condolences to earthquake victims. Jordan’s foreign minister also made his first trip to Syria on February 15 to check on earthquake victims in the country. Assad also travelled to Oman on February 20. Sultan Haitham bin Tareq and Assad held official talks. The Omani ruler gave his condolences and sincere sympathy to Assad.
According to Arab News, the lawmakers affirmed the Arab League’s intentions of having Syria return to the Arab organisation despite the war in Syria.
Egypt’s parliament Speaker Hanafy El-Gebaly said that the Arab delegation visited brotherly Syria to support the Syrian people.
