World News | Top Egyptian diplomat in Damascus meets Syrian Assad

DAMASCUS, Feb. 27 (AP) — Egypt’s foreign minister met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Monday and pledged more aid to earthquake-hit areas.

Sameh Shoukry, the most senior Egyptian official to visit Syria since 2011, came a day after Cairo parliament speaker Hanafy el-Gebaly and a delegation of senior Arab lawmakers visited Assad, To push for an end to Syria’s political isolation.

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In 2011, Syria was expelled from the Arab League after Assad’s government brutally crushed mass protests against his rule – an uprising that quickly turned into a brutal civil war. The conflict has killed more than 300,000 people and displaced half of the country’s 23 million people.

While some Arab countries have begun to rekindle ties with Assad in recent years, this month a major earthquake in Turkey and Syria killed more than 47,000 people, including more than 1,400 in Syrian government-controlled areas and more than 2,400 in Syrian government-controlled areas. After people, this process intensified. Rebel-held Northwest Territories. The earthquake further exacerbated the severe economic crisis in the war-torn country.

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Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, among U.S. allies in the Middle East, have provided earthquake aid to areas controlled by the Syrian government. The United Arab Emirates has sent more planes laden with aid than any other country, including Syria’s main allies Russia and Iran.

Egypt has so far delivered 1,500 tons of humanitarian aid, Shoukry told media after meeting Assad and his Syrian counterpart Faisal al-Medad.

“We will continue to provide humanitarian assistance within our capacity,” Shoukry said. Asked why Cairo had not yet normalized relations with Damascus, he replied that his visit was “humanitarian first and foremost”.

Less than 48 hours after the quake, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi spoke with Assad on the phone, the first time the two spoke in more than a decade. Over the years, many public figures in Egypt have called on Sisi’s government to strengthen ties with Syria. Shoukry has also pushed for Damascus’ return to the Cairo-based Arab League. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)