Egypt’s FM meets with Syria’s Assad
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sameh Shoukry, said on Monday they would continue supporting Syria.
This came following Shoukry’s meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.
The Egyptian minister arrived in Damascus on Monday morning in the first visit since the start of the Syrian crisis in 2011.
The visit of the Egyptian top official came after the catastrophic earthquake that hit southern Turkey and northwestern Syria on Feb. 6 that claimed the lives of nearly 50.000 in both countries and the destruction of the infrastructure.
Shoukry told the media after meeting al-Assad and also his Syrian counterpart, Faisal Mekdad, that Egypt has thus far sent 1.500 tons of humanitarian aid.
“We will continue to provide whatever humanitarian aid we can,” he said.
When asked about why Cairo has not yet normalized ties with Damascus, he responded by saying his visit was “first and foremost humanitarian”.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi spoke with Assad over the phone on less than 48 hours after the earthquake hit, the first time the two had spoken in over a decade.