Pak Sahafat – The US Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs said: “We will not lift sanctions against the Syrian regime and we will use anything to further isolate” Bashar al-Assad “and we were shocked by his welcome in the UAE.
According to Pak Sahafat News Agency, quoting the Lebanese publishing information base, “Yale Limbert” told a news conference today (Wednesday): We will not lift sanctions against the Syrian regime until real progress is made towards a political solution.
He added: We will not support efforts to normalize relations with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and we will use all possible means to increase the isolation of the Assad regime.
The US Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs said in a press conference: I was shocked when Bashar al-Assad was welcomed in the UAE, and we told this to the Emirati people.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad arrived in the United Arab Emirates on March 18 last year on an official visit and after a long period of severance of ties with the Gulf States, and met with a number of Syrian officials.
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Assad’s visit to the UAE took place a few months after UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed’s visit to Damascus in November of that year.
At the time, Abdullah bin Zayed traveled to Damascus and met with Assad, and on the sidelines of the meeting, he presented Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed with an invitation from Assad to visit the UAE.
Sami Klib, a Lebanese journalist and editor-in-chief of the Laaba al-Umm website at the time, said of the UAE foreign minister’s visit to Damascus that Assad would probably travel to the UAE soon after receiving an official invitation from Abu Dhabi.
Last October, Emirati media reported that Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed and Assad had made telephone inquiries into events in the region.
After the start of the Syrian crisis in March 2011, the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf and other Western-Arab countries closed the doors of their embassies in Damascus, which included the UAE, but Abu Dhabi reopened its embassy in Damascus on December 26, 2016.