US says it’s ‘profoundly disappointed’ after Syria’s Assad visits UAE
The U.S. State Department said it was “profoundly disappointed and troubled” by Syrian President Bashar Assad’s official visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
“We urge states considering engagement with the Assad regime to weigh carefully the horrific atrocities visited by the regime on the Syrians over the last decade, as well as the regime’s continuing efforts to deny much of the country access to humanitarian aid and security,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said, according to Reuters.
Price added that the trip was an “apparent attempt to legitimize” Assad.
Friday’s visit was Assad’s first to an Arab state since the Syrian war began in 2011. Assad, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has traveled outside Syria only a few times during the war, and has made official visits to only Russia and Iran.
The meeting comes in the aftermath of a decadelong war that started with an uprising against Assad’s rule and spiraled into the world’s biggest refugee crisis as the Syrian president crushed his opponents with Russian support.
U.S. officials had previously expressed concern in November when the UAE foreign minister visited Damascus and met Assad.
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