No Script

Please Wait...

Al-Ahed Telegram

French Parliamentarians Visit Syria

French Parliamentarians Visit Syria
folder_openEurope... access_time8 years ago
starAdd to favorites

Local Editor

A French parliamentary delegation paid a visit to the Syrian capital city of Damascus as the Middle Eastern country is grappling with a deadly foreign-sponsored militancy.

French Parliamentarians Visit Syria

In a statement released on Friday, French National Assembly member Thierry Mariani, the head of the five-member delegation, said the trip conveys a message of peace to all the Syrian people.

"We are here for the Easter holidays, and we will come on another visit when peace prevails in Syria," he said.
The French parliamentarians began their visit at the House of Saint Ananias church in Damascus.

Benjamin Blanchard, another delegation member, said the trip shows the French people's solidarity with the Syrians, expressing hope that the Syrian army will liberate more areas from the grips of militants.

In a relevant development, the UK foreign affairs committee published a report, calling on the opposition to join Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in its fight against the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group.

The warring sides should work to "reclaim Syrian territory jointly from ISIL [Daesh]," the report said.

"If the armed forces of the Syrian Arab Army and the Free Syria Army on ceasefire are able to agree on an early mutual purpose to reclaim Syrian territory joint from Daesh, they can begin a positive founding narrative of a new Syria and built trust, which should ultimately allow for the resolution of the hard issues."

The report also urged "greater engagement" with Iran and "closer dialog" with Russia, saying that such approach in "an earlier stage might have brokered an earlier cessation agreement."

Julien Barnes-Dacey, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the move was evidence of a "wider shift" toward accepting a "new reality" where al-Assad stays at least in the short term.

"There have been quite a number of voices that have effectively been saying that the priority has to be a fight against Daesh rather than the urgency in seeing Assad deposed," he told the Middle East Eye blog.

"It's beyond time that that kind of realism is brought to bear on British policy toward Syria at large and the Daesh fight in particular."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

Comments