French MPs Meet Al-Assad in Damascus
Local Editor
A delegation of four French parliamentarians met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during a private trip to the war-torn country despite a breakdown in diplomatic ties between Paris and Damascus.
The visit was the first by French officials since Paris suspended diplomatic relations with the Syrian regime over its violent crackdown on opposition protests.
The French foreign ministry had distanced itself from the lawmakers' initiative.
"We met Bashar al-Assad for a good hour. It went very well," Jacques Myard, an MP from the conservative opposition Union for a Popular Movement party [UMP] stated.
However, he refused to reveal the content of the talks.
The French government, which supported the Syrian opposition and wanted al-Assad to leave power, quickly denied that the lawmakers were there in an official capacity.
Government spokesman Stephane Le Foll stressed that it was "in no way an official French initiative".
Myard said the trip was "a personal mission to see what is going on, to hear, listen."
The visit came amid growing calls for a change of tack in relations with the Assad regime, which some diplomats and intelligence officials viewed as a possible ally in the fight against the Takfiri group.
However, Alexandre Giorgini, a spokesperson for the French foreign ministry, emphasized that the ministry had played no part in organizing the trip. The lawmakers "carried no official message", he declared.
The four MPs and senators, who hailed from both the left and the right, belong to the France-Syria parliamentary friendship groups. One of the MPs is a member of President Francois Hollande's ruling Socialist Party [PS].
The lawmakers highlighted the need for cooperation in various fields for the benefit of both French and Syrian people, stressing that the interests of France require the establishment of security and stability in the region as well as cooperation with Syria in order to curb terrorism, which is not only a threat to the people in the Middle East, but also to Europe.
A Syrian government source mentioned the lawmakers were also due to meet Foreign Minister Walid Moallem.
"If this issue could be tackled based on this principle, surely we will soon witness tangible positive results," added the president.
Based on that logic, he said, Syria has always encouraged cooperation among countries as such cooperation is the most effective way to hold back terrorism and eventually eliminate it.
Al-Assad added that Syria has always been and still is willing to develop and boost relations with other countries on the basis of respecting their sovereignty and rejecting any interference in their internal affairs.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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