Syria’s foreign minister raises country’s new flag at UN headquarters
Syrian foreign minister Asaad al-Shibani has raised his country’s new flag at the UN headquarters in New York.
Mr al-Shibani will attend a UN Security Council briefing, the first public appearance by a high-ranking Syrian government official in the United States since the fall of former president Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive in December.
The three-starred flag that had previously been used by opposition groups has replaced the two-starred flag of the Assad era as the country’s official emblem.
The new authorities in Damascus have been courting Washington in hopes of receiving relief from harsh sanctions that were imposed by the US and its allies in the wake of Assad’s brutal crackdown on anti-government protests in 2011 that spiralled into a civil war.
A delegation of Syrian officials travelled to the United States this week to attend World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington and UN meetings in New York. It was unclear if US government officials would meet with Mr al-Shibani during the visit.
“We are open to the international community and look forward to being treated the same way,” Mr al-Shibani said, as reported by state-run news agency SANA. “With the removal of the reason for the sanctions, they must be lifted.”
The US government has yet to officially recognise the current Syrian government, led by Ahmad al-Sharaa, an Islamist former insurgent who led the offensive that toppled Assad.
Washington has also so far left the Assad-era sanctions in place, although it has provided temporary relief to some restrictions. The militant group that Mr al-Sharaa led, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, remains a US-designated terrorist organisation.
Two Republican members of the US Congress, representatives Marlin Stutzman of Indiana and Cory Mills of Florida, arrived in Damascus last week on an unofficial visit organised by a Syrian-American non-profit group and met with Mr al-Sharaa and other government officials.
Mr Mills told the Associated Press before meeting with Mr al-Sharaa that “ultimately, it’s going to be the president’s decision” to lift sanctions or not, although he said that “Congress can advise”.
Mr Mills later told Bloomberg News that he had discussed the US conditions for sanctions relief with Mr al-Sharaa, including ensuring the destruction of chemical weapons left over from the Assad era, co-ordinating on counter-terrorism, making a plan to deal with foreign militants who fought alongside the armed opposition to Assad, and providing assurances to Israel that Syria would not pose a threat.
He also said that Mr al-Sharaa had said that Syria could normalise relations with Israel “under the right conditions”, without specifying what those conditions are.
Other Western countries have warmed up to the new Syrian authorities more quickly. The UK Government on Thursday lifted sanctions against a dozen of Syrian entities, including government departments and media outlets, and the European Union has begun to roll back its sanctions.
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