Congress members pay an unofficial visit to Syria as U.S. mulls sanctions relief

DAMASCUS, Syria — Two Republican members of the U.S. Congress were in the Syrian capital Friday on an unofficial visit organized by a Syrian-American nonprofit, the first by U.S. legislators since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad in December.

Also Friday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in his first visit since Assad’s fall and since the beginning of the Syrian uprising-turned-civil-war in 2011.

Rep. Marlin Stutzman of Indiana and Rep. Cory Mills of Florida visited the Damascus suburb of Jobar, the site of a historic synagogue that was heavily damaged and looted in the civil war, and the Christian neighborhood of Bab Touma, where they met with Christian religious leaders. The...
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