Syrian president meets US Congress member on an unofficial visit to Damascus
DAMASCUS, Syria, April 20, (AP): Syria's president on Saturday received a Republican member of Congress in the first visit to the country by American legislators since the ouster of former leader Bashar Assad in December. State news agency SANA did not give details about the meeting between President Ahmad al-Sharaa and Rep Cory Mills of Florida in the capital Damascus.
It said the meeting was attended by Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani, and comes in the wake of calls by Syria's new rulers for the lifting of sanctions imposed by the US and other Western nations early in the conflict. Since arriving in Syria on an unofficial visit Friday, Mills and Rep Marlin Stutzman of Indiana toured parts of Damascus, including the old quarter as well as one of the oldest synagogues in the world that was badly damaged and looted during the country's 14-year conflict that killed half a million people.
On Saturday, Stutzman visited the country's notorious Saydnaya Prison near Damascus, where tens of thousands of people were subjected to killings and torture during the 54-year rule of the Assad family. Al-Sharaa's Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group led the offensive that captured Damascus in early December, forcing Assad and his family to flee to his ally Russia, where he was given asylum.
Days after Assad was removed from power, the then-Biden administration decided not to pursue a $10 million reward it had offered for the capture of al-Sharaa, a former leader of al-Qaida's branch in Syria. The announcement in December followed a meeting between al-Sharaa and then top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, Barbara Leaf, who led the first US diplomatic delegation into post-Assad Syria.
The Trump administration has yet to officially recognize the current Syrian government and Washington has not yet lifted harsh sanctions that were imposed during Assad's rule. After visiting the prison, Stutzman told reporters that he saw that the people of Syria now have energy and optimism, adding that as the country's new government makes decisions, "it will be very helpful having the United States understand what the changes are here and that the sanctions lifted would be a huge economic boom.' Any move to lift sanctions "would be President Trump's decision,' he said.
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