Description
Added on the 19/03/2023 15:12:48 - Copyright : AFPTV - First images
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad meets with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in Jeddah, as his country was welcomed back to the Arab League after more than a decade of suspension. IMAGES
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad shakes hands with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman upon his arrival for the Arab League summit in Jeddah. IMAGES
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad arrives at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on the eve of his first Arab League summit in over a decade of war and regional isolation. IMAGES
The United States criticizes the Arab League decision to readmit Syria, after a more than decade-long suspension. The body suspended Damascus in November 2011 over its crackdown on peaceful protests, which had begun earlier that year, and which spiraled into a war that has killed more than 500,000 people, displaced millions and battered the country's infrastructure and industry. "We will not normalize our relations with the Assad regime, and we don’t support our allies and partners doing so either," US State Department Spokesman Vedant Patel tells reporters during a press briefing. SOUNDBITE
The United States criticizes the top diplomat of ally the United Arab Emirates for meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, denouncing efforts to rehabilitate a "brutal dictator." "We are concerned by reports of this meeting and the signal it sends," State Department spokesman Ned Price tells reporters. SOUNDBITE