Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad Al Shibani met State Department officials in New York on Tuesday to discuss counter-terrorism priorities, a diplomat told The National.
The meeting marked the first time American officials and Mr Al Shibani have met in the US. It had to take place in New York as Mr Al Shibani and his team are not allowed to travel to Washington because of visa restrictions.
It was not immediately clear who Mr Shibani met with from the State Department.
Damascus’s new government has been seeking to mend ties with Washington, hoping for relief from debilitating sanctions imposed on the regime of former president Bashar Al Assad.
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said that “some representatives of the Syrian interim authorities are in New York for various UN meetings".
“You know that we continue to assess our Syria policy cautiously and will judge the interim authorities by their actions,” she added. “We are not normalising diplomatic relations with Syria.”
Damascus is seeking permanent sanctions relief from the US, saying the measures are deterring international organisations and companies from investing in Syria’s reconstruction. The European Union and UK have begun to lift Assad-era sanctions but the new US administration has kept them in place.
Mr Al Shibani has been in the US for meetings for several days and last week at the UN, he raised the three-star flag of Syria’s uprising as the official Syrian flag, 14 years after the war erupted.
The US last month set eight conditions for Damascus to fulfil if sanctions are to be lifted, including the destruction of remaining chemical weapons stockpiles and ensuring foreigners are not given senior governing roles.
The diplomat said talks with American officials would focus on counter-terrorism. The US this month said it would cut its anti-ISIS troop presence in Syria by about half.
US President Donald Trump's administration has not formally recognised Syria’s self-declared government, led by Ahmad Al Shara, a former insurgent who commanded the offensive that led to Mr Al Assad's removal.
Apart from providing limited sanctions relief, Washington has maintained most restrictions, complicating Damascus’s efforts to reintegrate into the global economy.
At a UN Security Council meeting on Syria last week, Mr Al Shibani said sanctions are undermining stability and blocking economic recovery.
Sole survivors
Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
What: India v Afghanistan, first Test When: Starts Thursday Where: M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengalaru
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024. It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine. Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages]. The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts. With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians. Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved. Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world. The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Tenants also require a letter of no objection from their landlord before being allowed to list the property.
There is a cost of Dh1,590 before starting the process, with an additional licence fee of Dh300 per bedroom being rented in your home for the duration of the rental, which ranges from three months to a year.
Anyone hoping to list a property for rental must also provide a copy of their title deeds and Ejari, as well as their Emirates ID.
