Damascus, Syria – two Republican members of the US Congress were found in the Syrian capital on Friday during an unofficial visit organized by a Syrian -American non -profit organization, the first by American legislators since the fall of the fall of Former Syrian President Bashar Assad in December.
Also Friday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met Syrian president Ahmad al-Sharaa During his first visit since the fall of Assad and since the start of the Syrian uprising which became a civil-war in 2011.
The representative Marlin Stutzman of Indiana and the representative Cory Mills of Florida visited the suburbs of Damascus of Jobar, the site of a historic synagogue which was strongly damaged and looted in the civil war, and the Christian district of Bab Touma, where they met Christian religious leaders. They also had to meet Al-Sharaa and other representatives of the government.
The Trump administration has not yet officially recognized the current Syrian government, led by Al-Sharaa, a former Islamist inside who led an in -love offensive that overthrew Assad. Washington has not yet lifted severe sanctions which were imposed during the reign of Assad.
Mills, who sits on the Chamber’s Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Associated Press that it was “very important to come here to be able to see it by myself, to be with various government organizations, to examine the needs of the Syrian people, to examine the needs of the nation for stability.”
Mills said he expected discussions with Al-Sharaa include the issue of sanctions, as well as government priorities and the need for transitional administration to move to a “democratically elected society”.
“In the end, it will be the president’s decision” to raise sanctions or not, he said, although “the congress can advise”.
The members of the Congress came to the invitation of the American Syrian Alliance for Peace and Prosperity, a non-profit organization based in Indiana which describes its mission as promoting “a sustainable political, economic and social partnership between the people of Syria and the United States”.
The Syrian Minister of Social Affairs and Hind Kabawat work, the only woman and only Christian in service in the transitional government, joined the Congress team during a visit to Bab Touma, who, according to her, was “very important” for the Syrians.
The US State Department, on the other hand, published a statement on Friday reiterating its warning against American citizens visiting Syria. The press release indicates that the State Department “followed credible information linked to potential imminent attacks, including locations frequented by tourists”.
The Palestinian chief visits as the Israeli troops remain in Syria
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said that Abbas’s visit, its first since 2007, “aimed to strengthen Palestinian-Syrian relations and discuss pressing regional developments”.
Abbas and Al-Sharaa have discussed the current war in Gaza and international efforts to advance long-standing efforts to achieve a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and “agreed to train joint committees aimed at improving bilateral cooperation in several sectors,” he said.
Syria has a population of around 450,000 Palestinian refugees. The Yarmouk refugee camp outside Damascus was formerly widely considered as the capital of the Palestinian diaspora before being widely destroyed during the war.
Palestinian refugees in Syria have never received citizenship, ostensibly to preserve their right to return to the houses of which they fled or were forced when the State of Israel in 1948 was created. But unlike neighboring Lebanon, where Palestinians are prohibited from having goods or working in many professions, in Syria, Palestinians had historically all the rights of citizens, voting and standing in the elections.
Syria has no diplomatic relations with Israel. Although the new Syrian authorities have publicly declared that they are not interested in entering a conflict with Israel, the Israeli government considers the former Islamist insurgents currently in power in Damascus with suspicion.
Israeli forces have been seized An unparalleled buffer zone inside Syria after the rebels overthrew Assad and launched a large series of air strikes on military facilities in Syria. Israeli officials said they would not authorize the new Syrian soldier south of Damascus.