Prime Arab lawmakers in Syria for talks with President Assad

Lawmakers from 9 Arab international locations, in addition to Palestinian representatives, made up the delegation — reflecting a continuation within the thawing of relations with Assad, who for over a decade has been remoted from a lot of the area.

Syria was suspended from the Arab League in 2011 after Assad’s authorities cracked down brutally on mass protests in opposition to his rule — an rebellion that rapidly descended right into a brutal civil warfare. The battle has killed over 300,000 folks and displaced half the nation’s inhabitants of 23 million.

First to reach in Damascus was Egypt’s Parliament Speaker Hanafy el-Gebaly, essentially the most senior Egyptian official to go to Syria in over a decade. Iraq’s parliament speaker, Mohammed Halbousi — amongst a number of Arab leaders who’ve been calling for Syria’s return to the Arab League — headed the delegation.

On Saturday, the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union met within the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, after a number of Arab international locations in recent times moved to reestablish ties with Assad.

The method intensified following the large Feb. 6 earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria and killed greater than 47,000 folks, together with over 1,400 folks in government-controlled areas of Syria and greater than 2,400 within the rebel-held northwest. The quake additional compounded Syria’s deep financial disaster.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia are amongst U.S. allies within the Center East that delivered earthquake help to government-held areas in Syria. The United Arab Emirates despatched extra aid-loaded planes than every other nation, together with Syria’s key allies Russia and Iran.

El-Gebaly advised reporters after touchdown in Damascus that the Arab delegation was “visiting brotherly Syria to help the Syrian folks” after the quake. He cited the joint assertion from the Baghdad assembly about the necessity to start the method of “bringing Syria again to the Arab fold.”

“It’s pure that Syria will return some day, God prepared, and issues will return to what they as soon as had been,” he mentioned.