The United States does not support efforts to normalize relations with the government of President Bashar Assad or lift sanctions imposed on Damascus until the political process progresses in the war-torn country, said on Wednesday. the US Secretary of State.

Antony Blinken’s comments come as some Arab countries have recently started improving their relations with Syria. Assad and King Abdullah II of Jordan spoke on the phone last week for the first time since the start of the Syrian conflict in March 2011. Last month, the Syrian Minister of Defense visited Jordan and met with Jordanian military officials.

Syria has also been invited to participate in Expo 2020 Dubai, the first global exhibition in the Middle East. Crisis-stricken Lebanon is working to bring electricity from Jordan to Syria and a 10-year-old deal to transport Egyptian natural gas through Jordan and Syria to Lebanon was also relaunched in September. .

Blinken spoke at a joint press conference in Washington with the foreign ministers of Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Arab and Western countries blamed Assad for the murderous repression of the uprising that erupted in 2011 and supported the opposition at the start of the conflict. The civil war in Syria has killed over 350,000 people and displaced millions. The course of the war changed in late 2015, when Russia threw its military weight behind Assad. Yet Syria is grappling with sanctions imposed by the United States and many Western countries.

“What we have not done and have no intention of doing is expressing any support for efforts to normalize relations or rehabilitate Mr. Assad or lift a single sanction. against Syria or to change our positions to oppose the reconstruction of Syria, ”Blinken said. in Washington when asked if the United States maintains that some Arab countries are resuming normal relations with Assad’s government. He said this policy will not change “until there is irreversible progress towards a political solution, which we believe is necessary and vital”.

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